It Figures.... Ultramarines Delayed

Yay.    :-(

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Dear Mike

RE: Order 100004835

Unfortunately, due to a production issue outside of our control, we are not able to start shipping your order for the ULTRAMARINES DVD Collector's Set today, November 29th as planned. We are working around the clock with our third party suppliers to resolve the issue as soon as possible and hope to be able to give you details of a new ship date tomorrow.

We at Codex Pictures know you will be very disappointed not to receive your DVD as soon as anticipated and are equally distressed ourselves that this has happened.

Please accept our sincere apologies and rest assured we are doing everything we can to resolve the issue and get your order to you quickly.

Codex Pictures

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I was wondering why there wasn't some big fanfare about the release date on their website.  Now I know.

Six Unrelated Things

Ulthwe Eldar: I'm working on a Wraithlord; a few small mods and he's looking pretty menacing with his sword.  The base is covered with a mix of vinyl wall spackle and sand, and it works great and is heavy enough to keep the model upright on inclined surfaces.

Ultramarines movie: I am pre-order 4835.  I understand these should be shipping today?  Hopefully?

Android: I have begun to develop for my HTC Evo.  I'm really digging real Java development for this phone.  Way better than J2ME ever was.

Ring The Bell!:  I took a shift ringing a bell for the Salvation Army on Saturday.  It was much more fun than I thought it would be.  I was also surprised at the high rate of donation, but mostly when my six-year-old cub scout was there with me in his uniform.  Just by myself... not so high a rate.

Parenting Moments: Designer7x shares painting with his son.  The next generation must know delayed gratification gaming!

Painting Competitions:  I have been undecided on whether to go to Adepticon to take part in the first Crystal Brush competition or go do Games Day and attempt another Golden Demon.  My wife's response: "Why not do both?"  <3 <3 <3

Attention Coffee Makers

I appreciate you trying to make coffee.  I really do.  But I expect more out of you.  When my kids help me in the kitchen I know at the end I'm going to have half a cup of flour on the floor and some egg shells in the batter.  They're kids.  It's expected.  When adults handle foodstuffs I have somewhat higher expectations.  Perhaps they are unrealistic.  I just expect that I can drink a cup of coffee without the bottom of my mug being filled with coffee grounds.

Let's discuss how this happens and how to avoid it, shall we?

First, our assumptions ... we're talking about regular drip coffee from a standard office coffee maker.  Not Turkish Coffee.  Not some French press thing.  Nothing fancy or complicated.  Here's the basic concept.

fig. 1, Coffee correctly confined in filter

Here we see the filter "basket" with a filter in it, and dry coffee grounds in the filter.  The water pours over the coffee grounds, absorbing some coffee-ishness from them, then seeps through the filter to the waiting coffee pot (not pictured!  don't panic!)  The filter has a very special job, you see!  It keeps the coffee grounds nicely separated from the final product: coffee that is 100% liquid.

Here's how it can go terribly wrong...

fig. 2, Coffee has escaped the filter!

You see, some coffee has escaped the bounds of the filter, making its way to the exit of the basket and therefore into the coffee pot.  And since coffee has a dark color, you never notice it until you drink it.

The end result.....

fig. 3, an unpleasant coffee-covered tongue

Do you see the problem?  We want to drink our coffee without having to chew it at the end.  You know who can help us?  You can!  You can make sure all the coffee is in the filter before adding the water!  When you pour the dry coffee grounds into the filter, do it slowly and carefully.  Not a single ground should escape its filter home if you are careful.  I know you can do it!

Do not just fling the grounds haphazardly at the filter, as I suspect you are doing currently.  You are not Tom Cruise in "Cocktail" when you make coffee.  Take your time and do it right for once.

fig. 4, some jerk

  Seriously.  I'm sick of crunchy-style coffee.

More BuckyBall Art

Can you name the game?  If not, it means your childhood is not as cool as mine (hint: cool is pronounced old in this instance.)  For clarity, the image was run through an edge filter.  It works remarkably well on metallic balls on a conference table.

...and yes, I know the imagery is not perfect.  It's iconic.  Cut me some slack.

The Gamers: Dorkness Rising (all too true)

In some dark former life I used to .... roleplay.

As a greasy teen I played the fare of the day.  AD&D, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Call of Cthulhu, whatever my high school nerd buddies and I gravitated toward.  And it was fun.  But for all the hiding in basements yelling at each other and throwing dice as a teen, it wasn't until I tried roleplaying as an adult that the real freakshow began.  Seriously, these were some of the most malformed ego disorders I have ever encountered.  If you have gamed, you know the people and you know how accurate the stereotypes are.  The min-maxer; the serial NPC murderer; the rules lawyer; the person who throws mini-tantrums when things don't go their way. 

Tonight, I was perusing Netflix on-demand and came across "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising" and started watching it, and I was surprisingly entertained.  I found myself remembering people I hadn't thought of in years as the characters in the movie did things in-game that were so typical of the miscreants in my gaming circles.  The acting isn't stellar but you don't think about it most of the time.  The important thing is that the people who made this film love the source material and it showed.  If you have never role-played, you probably won't find this terribly appealing.  If you have, this will make you laugh.

Searching for the above image, I have discovered that "Dorkness Rising" is really part 2.  I think I'll go watch part 1 now.  Both of them appear to be available on youtube.  Oh, and they have some sort of website with more stuff.

Accidental Sobchak

A coworker was messing around with the Bucky Balls and came up with this:

It is, of course, a stylized rendition of Walter Sobchak chucking his bowling bag at a nihilist.  I don't think he had that particular image in mind when he started, but that is clearly what he has produced.


In case you have not seen The Big Lebowski, or do not remember the scene....
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=8981

Magnetic art of this caliber is way out of your league Donny.

SpecOps Killzone BatReps: Everyone's a Winner!

Last night Mark and I played two SpecOps Killzone games, my Space Marines against his Orks.  Mark has the dubious honor of getting me into this crazy hobby a few years ago, so he has no excuse for ever losing to me for any reason, ever.

That said, I wiped his Orks out in game one without taking a casualty.  Orks <= lol

He reciprocated by changing his army and wiping me out and only losing 4/18 Orks.  /shame

The mission was Extraction, in which one model for the defender is the "High Value Target" or HVT.  In game one it was a Nob w/ a power klaw.  The Ork list was 4 Lootas, a few boyz with shootas and said Nob.  My list was the six model force from my last post here.  The battle field was this attractive group of white boxes to represent.... something boxy I guess.

The battle started well for the Orks, with one of the Lootas making a very unlikely armor save against the Terminator's storm bolter.  Things didn't go so well after that, with every Space Marine making his armor save against the few Ork shots that hit.

Finally, the Orks got tired of doing all the dying and the Nob charged the Terminator.  Noooo!  He's the High Value Target!  If I even touch him with that power first it'll turn him into pesto.  So I was actually rooting for the Klaw to kill the Termie so that I could rapid-fire the Nob to death with the nearby tactical Marines.  No, instead the Termie made his invulnerable save and proceeded to flatten the Nob.  As a side note, I know you can't "turn off" the power fist anymore, but can one choose not to fight in melee?

Anyway after total Marine domination, Mark retooled his Ork list to maximize shootas, big shootas and throw in a couple burnas.  The result.  Ouch.  Ouch.  Ouch.  Ouch.  So many shots... so many wounds... so many armor saves, most of which I saved but every miss was a dear loss.

The end result... everyone won!  Well, not all at once, but both Marines and Orks got their moment to shine.  Mark is writing up the scenarios for these, and I'll link to his much neglected blog once he posts them.  It was a fun game and I'm looking forward to playing the next scenario.  Apparently the goal is to ramp up from SO:K 175 pts last night to an Apocalypse game!  Yikes!

Mark's blog, for scenario fluffiness: 40kbadmoonz.blogspot.com

SpecOps Killzone Space Marines tonight!

A friend and I are playing some SpecOps Killzone as part of an 40k escalation series.  He will be playing Orks (including, I fear, Lootas) and I will be playing Space Marines.  My list is as follows:


Vanguard Veteran Fraunhofer (power weapon, bolt pistol, medipack, team leader)
Tactical Marine Leitus (bolter, bolt pistol)
Tactical Marine Banhof (bolter, bolt pistol)
Tactical Marine Leipner (missile launcher, bolt pistol)
Tactical Marine Justov (heavy bolter, suspensors, bolt pistol)
Terminator Hestophar (storm bolter, power fist)
---
Total: 174 points

More after the battle!

SpecOps Killzone BatRep: 'Nids vs. Orks

Outta da way, bugz!  We's got some know-wotz fer da Boss!

175 pt game, reconnaissance.
Orks were attackers.

Ork list:  Lugruk's RuffBoyz (174 pts)

Lugruk, Nob w/ 'eavy armor, power klaw, slugga (50 pts)
Skabgut, Nob w/ 'eavy armor, choppa, slugga (25 pts)
Gobstik, Nob Painboy w/ 'eavy armor (55 pts)
Skumbad, 'ard Boy w/ shoota, close combat accesssories (11 pts)
Durthug, 'ard Boy w/ Big Shoota (15 pts)
Skarslag, 'ard Boy w/ Big Shoota, targeter (18 pts)

Steve's Tyranid List:

3 x Warrior w/ Venom Cannon, scything talons

5 x Hormagaunts, adrenal glands

This was a lunch-hour battle, so our terrain was made up of boxes I had around my office.  Very urban, I suppose.  Turn 1 saw the Orks surge forward and kill a 'gaunt with the big shootas.  Nids fired venom cannons and put a wound on both Lugruk and Skabgut.  Turn 2 we rolled for priority and Nids won (and they won every turn thereafter.)  Hormagaunts practically flew across the table and each big shoota got charged by two of them, doing no wounds at all.  The warrior on the far side of the table sniped Skumbad, taking his shoota out of the game.  The boyz returned hits on the gaunts for no wounds, then really did some hurt when the Nobs charged in for the bottom of turn 2.  Skabgut fell to a venom cannon, and poor Durthug was left struggling with a gaunt as the rest of the mob pressed toward the goal.  Watching the painboy stomp off must have been irritating.

Once the gaunts had been dealt with, it was onto the warriors.  Turn 3, Orks called the Waaaagh and charged all the way into assault with the two warriors in the back.  it was the beginning of the end for the nids.  Lugruk showed why his name goes on top of the list as he single-handedly (hur hur) power klawed each warrior into bite-sized morsels.  

Things may have gone differently if Steve had done things in a slightly different order.  Lugruk missed an armor save near the end of the game, but still made his FNP roll.  In the same turn, at the same initiative, Painboy Gobstik was killed by the Warrior he was engaged with.  If the Painboy had gone down first, Lugruk would have gone down as well.  It would have been pretty dicey for the Orks after that, with only the two big shoota boyz, Durthug and Skarslag, left to take out two Warriors.  Instead, the last bug got significantly ganged up on and finally fell to Lugruk's Klaw.  Victory for da Orks!

The Renaissance Has Begun

Listen up, you lot.

When the web comic Ctrl-Alt-Delete does comics on war-gaming, it's funny stuff.
When Penny Arcade does a comic on war-gaming, it's something big.
When Penny Arcade does two comics on war-gaming in less than two weeks, something huge is happening.
When the largest prize ever offered for a miniature painting competition is at an American convention....

...we are seeing the beginning of a renaissance of miniature gaming in America.

I can hope, can't I?

Last Night's Revelations

Because education is good.

1. My hand makes a lousy cutting board.
2. A bread knife is plenty sharp to slice the skin on your palm open.
3. band-aids make everything better
4. The Kids In The Hall are looking really old nowadays.
5. Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning is fantastic on freshly roasted pumpkin seeds
6. Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning is about 99.4% salt
7. Salt really hurts when it gets into the corner of a fresh bread-knife wound.

And now you know.

Attention All Gamers: Cavalry != Calvary

It's a small thing, but it drives me to distraction.  Behold:

Cavalry: Troops trained to fight mounted on horses (or perhaps bears.  Or sharks!)


Calvary: A hill outside ancient Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, also called Golgotha.


Notice the small, but all-important spelling difference in letters 3-6.  Gamers seem to have no problem referring to cavalry as "cav" but only seem to be able to say "cavalry" about 50% of the time instead of saying "calvary."  Cav-al-ry.  Cal-va-ry.  Not the same.

Also, when you say "supposably" you probably mean "supposedly."  Supposably is a real word, but it means conceivably.  So, GW is supposedly releasing a new Daemonhunters codex soon, but they are supposably releasing a new army made up of power-armored chihuahuas in 2011.  Supposably.

Spoiler Alert: The Chicken Gets It

Please, please tell me who this cinematic is supposed to appeal to?!?  After rooting for this oppressed chicken as she makes her daring escape attempt I was appalled to see her get snuffed by the stupid cook guy. Really depressing.

Doesn't the little guy (or gal) win anymore? Shame on you, chicken haters. I don't care about your dark mood-setting back story. All I hear is blah, blah, blah now anyway.

Goblins Need Love

When it comes to WHFB Orcs and Goblins, regular old Goblins are the middle child.  The one who always claimed "Mom liked you best!" of the other units in the army.

They have no Night Goblin trickery, like netters or fanatics. They have no squig herds or squig mounts.  They don't hate Dwarfs.
They have no poisoned mounts or wall-walking, like forest goblins.
They have no T4, tusker charge boar mounts and chariots, no choppas, no warpaint ward saves and no super-armed shock troops like Orcs do.

They are just.... goblins.  The basic troop model doesn't even have the option for a hand weapon on the sprue, so you have to convert them to get the 6+ ward save in cc.  Sure they have wolves and wolf chariots, but they are completely mundane.  They have war machines, but these are the basic ones from the rulebook (except for the Doom Diver of course.)  What role do goblins actually fill in an O&G army?  What are they good at that there aren't already multiple options for?

Let's take Skaven as our comparison, another horde army.  Skaven basic troops are clanrats, skavenslaves, stormvermin.  I'll leave off giant rats and night runners, since they are quite a bit different.  The three troops I mentioned each have their specific rules and strengths.  Slaves are amazingly cheap, pop when they break from combat, and you can shoot at an enemy in combat with them.  Clanrats are basic and fairly cheap but you can attach a weapon team to them, or hide an assassin in them.  Stormvermin are very similar to clanrats except they have better gear, a better initiative and weapon skill, can take a magic banner, and a unit of them can be boosted with a special character.  Each unit has something special about them, something that can make them more useful.  Goblins do not.  They have hand weapons, spears or short bows.  They might have shields.  They might have command.  That's it.

I have to admit, I have a thing for armies that don't include their best basic units.  My Witch-Hunters army includes no Sororitas at all, and I'm building an army of all mounted goblins and discovering that there are exactly zero surprises in the army except for the die-rolls.  Even the wolf riders and chariots don't have very much killing power, and now you need minimum 10 riders alive at the end of combat just to disrupt, so forget MSU gangs.  Maybe the next army book will make their place in the O&G army more defined.

So here's my petition to GW: please give goblins something night goblins do not have, other than just light armor.  Maybe a unit upgrade of a goblin big boss (as opposed to the current "boss" unit champion) that doesn't count against the hero points (perhaps with a lowered magic item point limit too.)  Something.  Anything.  Please.

Making Terrain ... with Fire!

My wife and I tried a little terrain making using cheap styrofoam and a blow torch. The result was interesting, but not exactly what I had hoped.

All the same, I got to play with fire.

New Skaven Models!

From the GW email newsletter:

In January 2011, following the epic release of The Island of Blood, the Skaven will be receiving reinforcements, including new models - visit the website tomorrow for more information from the Studio. And with these new additions gathering on the horizon, there is no better time to start up or expand your very own Skaven army

Yes!  I'm really interested in seeing what new models are released.  The Night Runners are clearly a candidate, as they are similar to the last edition of clan rat.  I'd love to see a better Thanquol model too.  What I'd really like to see, beyond all reasonable hope, is a box of giant rats and packmasters.  Currently the only way to get 18 points of giant rats is to buy them with 80 points of rat ogres in a $40 box.  I was personally hoping that the new rulebook would give rat ogres/giant rats a mixed unit rule like kroxigors/skinks get based on the way they are sold, but hey.... no biggie.  So, like I said, if you want to field any reasonable number of giant rats you are forced to buy a lot of $40 boxes, even if you use all the other smallish rats that come with plague monks, doomwheel, etc.

So what other Skaven units are old..... gutter runners?  I still like those.  The warlord?  Yeah, I'd love to see a multi-option warlord box.  Same with warlock engineer.  And, oh!  Plague priest!  I'd love to see a good model for him!  I guess I'll just wait for tomorrow and see what's in store.

In the words of the immortal General Vorg... Squeeks!

EDIT:  Apparently the "more information" on the web site is that we can look forward to more information.  Oh, well.

Quote of the Day

While playing with magnets at work.....

Paul: As they (the magnet groups) gain mass they become more attractive.

Matt: Yeah, that doesn't really work in real life.

SpecOps Killzone Orks WIP 1

I'm digging through the Orks to find models to fit my Special Operations Group (SOG) for SpecOps Killzone.  The two big shoota boyz I had painted a few years ago for a "Paint Assault On Black Reach in a Month" painting competition (which I lost... other examples of the losing models here, here and here.)  The Nobs are all converted from WHFB Black Orcs, combined with some old metal Nob parts and things I made sure to bitz order before GW shut down the bitz orders, like the Dok Bosspole thingy.  The 'urty syringes are scratch built from miscellaneous bits and brass rod.

I did some browbeating tonight to the gang to get them to play, and even sent one of them home with a printed copy of the rules.  Hopefully.......

Time To Evacuate The Earth

I've been having a lot of fun reading the Earth Evacuation Blog.  It's basically a collection of news stories and theories about how the Large Hadron Collider will destroy our planet through generation of minuscule black holes.  It may be a little crazy, but it's not timecube crazy.

For introduction, this page has some "key posts" that help a new reader get up to speed.

BTW, I am firmly against destroying the earth, since this is where I keep most of my stuff.

SpecOps Killzone Orks

I am very interested in playing SpecOps Killzone, and will be trying to convince my local group to try it out.  The low model count might actually get some people into the game who otherwise are reluctant because of the steep entry cost of a normal 40k army.  I may even donate some AoBR Marines or Orks and miscellaneous bits to help someone start.  There is also a forum dedicated to the rules.

So here is the first 175 pt list I'm planning on trying out.

Lugruk's RuffBoyz (174 pts)

Lugruk, Nob w/ 'eavy armor, power klaw, slugga (50 pts)
Skabgut, Nob w/ 'eavy armor, choppa, slugga (25 pts)
Gobstik, Nob Painboy w/ 'eavy armor (55 pts)
Skumbad, 'ard Boy w/ shoota, close combat accesssories (11 pts)
Durthug, 'ard Boy w/ Big Shoota  (15 pts)
Skarslag, 'ard Boy w/ Big Shoota, targeter (18 pts)

The goal is to have a hard close combat core, boosted by the FNP conferred by the painboy, and a shooting group laying down S5 firepower (albeit at a less than impressive BS2.)  Skumbad will stick with the combat group, looking for opportunity shots.  The force has a consistent 4+ save and a total of 9 wounds, 7 of which will have FNP conferred.  The combat core can assault with 9 S5, 4 S4 and 4 S9 attacks if everyone gets in base contact, so I'm hoping that will wipe out anything they get near.  I haven't really looked at the scenarios much, so this may change if I see the need to adapt to a list that makes more sense for them.