Friday 30 March 2012

Gaming Tourettes

We are the home of gaming tourettes, it says so at the top of the page.   What do we mean?  Well perhaps it is time for an explanation. 

It doesn't as perhaps you may first imagine refer to the outbursts of swearing that can accompany our Wednesday night gaming session although there are many, some comprehensively colourful, near a professional examples. What it refers to those comments that originate outside of the game and in particular outside from any of the players.  Gaming tourettes comes from a well meaning but insensitive onlooker or as often from someone experiencing a lull in their own game.

Often thinly veiled as a question or blurted out before any mental filtering can take place they can give a player an advantage or save them from their own failures at generalmanship.

"Did you mean to leave the objective unguarded?" or "If you reform and angle toward the bridge you will be out of charge range next turn" are typical examples.  The worst of all 'Touretting' comes in the last moments of the last turn and it is some advice that snatches a draw or, worse still, a win from defeat.

Correcting a rule or a stat line is perfectly fine even encouraged but we all learn more from our defeats than our victories

Touretting will get you the wizards hat (not to be confused by a wizards sleeve which is another topic) to mark you as tea maker for the 21:30 and 22:30 breaks.




If you have any comments lets hear them

Monday 26 March 2012

Print on Demand?

With army books/codices/rulebooks etc constantly being updated and re newed would you be interested in a subscription type affair where you could download new and updated rulebooks on demand?

This would mean FAQs etc could be incorporated directly into these books without waiting for a new edition. Rules and points values could be changed instantly if something was way out of line (*cough* puppet *cough).

Exactly how do to this is another matter but in theory would you opt for a "print on demand" rulebook?

Results:

Terror-ific

One step closer to 'finishing' my Vampires as the Terrorgheist is done and dusted.

This is another model I wasn't intending to get, but after the pre campaign warm ups, I needed some scary fast moving stuff to get in amongst the enemy ASAP.

Final things to do now are 20 zombies and a unit filer, wanted these done by the end of the month but another deadline may slip away again.


 

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Taking the Hiss

Shaman Goomba sat in the shade of the small copse of trees, back propped against a rock and an ominously hissing wicker basket next to him.
His red eyes were wide open and drool ran from his slack jaw.

“Boss, boss!!” a large, scarred and heavily tattooed savage orc ran towards the trees from the direction of the nearby orc camp. “Boss?”
Goomba’s head slowly turned to point in the direction of the orc although his eyes pointed to somewhere else entirely.
Slowly the shaman’s jaw moved, “Wazzzzz zuppp, Blagggggrottttt?”
The Orc identified as Blagrot looked quizzically at the Shaman, “Scouts say metal humies trying to cross da river. Red boyz
Hmmm, Red boyzzzz, red byzzz, bzzzzz”, the shaman waved his hand around in front of his face as if warding off a fly.
Blagrot sighed, shifted his weight slowly on his feet before grunting, “Big Boss say we go fight the Red boyz, they don’t cross our river”
Righhttt, rigghhtt, be right witch ya”, Goomba reached into the wicker basket and pulled out a large brightly coloured snake, gripping it around the head so the fangs stuck out, “just one more hiss”
Goomba jabbed the snake’s fangs into his arm “awwhhhhhh” he exhaled, leaning back against the rock some more, eyes rolling.

A guttural sound of disgust issued from Blagrot before he turned and ran back towards the orc camp, clashing his weapons loudly over his head and screaming at top of his lungs.
Waaagh”!!!!!

Monday 12 March 2012

Whimsi-Poll

Binx asked earlier today what whimsical question will be polled.
Well there you have it, whimsy galore!

Go on, vote! You know there's an answer that suits you!

Pocket full of Cryptonite

Some more Vampire Count's stuff for you today.

Both pictures are pretty rubbish, but I gave up trying to get a good shot so you get what you're given.

First up are three Crypt Horrors, I was never intending to buy any of these, but as I said in a previous post, the option to grab the bits from Bitzbox was too good to miss, so here they are.


Secondly is a Strigoi Ghoul King. He would normally sit on top of a Terrorghiest, but mine is on foot. Again, as Lordybloke would say, this looks a lot better in the flesh and will hopefully lead my army to victory against Cortez's dwarfs in the campaign this month some time.

Saturday 10 March 2012

Binx's Book Review Episode 2

 




This time I review 'Know no Fear' by Dan Abnett, the 19th book in the Black Libraries Horus Heresy series.

Covering the period immediately before, during and after the Battle of Calth from the Ultramarines point of view, Mr Abnett truly immerses you in the massive scale of the atrocities carried out by the Word Bearers.

Familiar names such as Erebus and Kor Phaeron make a return to the series and with 4 pages of Dramatis Personae (compared to the usual two) there are plenty of characters to love and to hate.

Following the intense execution and almost eradication of the 13th legion, from the field reports of Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines, you get a sense of how close they come to becoming extinct. There are  very few testimonies from the Word Bearers themselves so it is a very one sided book, but written so well that you never feel as if you are missing out on any of the action.

Not wanting to spoil it for anyone who is yet to read it, I wont go into too much detail of how the attack comes to be, but the sheer scale is something that has never been recorded in a Horus Heresy novel yet and doesn't tie up all the loose ends, making you want to read more and Im sure the Black Library writes wont let us down.

Having given Deliverance Lost 16 Primarchs out of 18, my review of Gav Thorpe's novel set the bar very high. So for 'Know no Fear' I will give another 16 out of 18. It could have scored higher, but it is not perfect and with such a huge host of characters to follow there were some times where I had to back track to remember who was doing what. That's probably Dan Abnett's fault, but because I was only reading it in 40 minute sections on my lunch break at work.

Finally to please our resident Ultra Smurf player, Jonno, a quick quote from the book....

They say you should always kill them. Ultramarines. If you do make one your enemy, do not allow him to live. Do not spare him. Leave an Ultramarine alive, and you leave room for retribution. Only when he is dead are you safe from harm. That is what they say.