Another group of comics Axed by me

Once more it is time for a trip to the local comic book store to pick up my monthly supply of comic books. Before leaving I noticed that there was still a rather thick stack of unread books stacked up in my game room. After searching though the stack it became very apparent that some titles had been purchased over four months ago and not been touched since. It seems that it was once more time for me to cut down my “pull list” (keep in mind that I had cut the list in half around six months ago). I just cannot rationalize spending an average of 3 dollars a book if I’m not even going to read them once.

First book to go was The Mighty Avengers. After the fallout from the last several Marvel mega-events the team featured in this book has been left in shambles. The team is now led by Hank Pym (Oh yeah, give me more ant-man….its defiantly what the public wants) and is made up of what has traditionally been the supporting cast of the Avenger book line (No Captain America, no Iron Man, no Thor, not even Hawkeye, no thanks). It’s not that I haven’t been reading this book I just don’t care to read what looks like the “poor man’s Avengers”.

Next went all of the X-titles except for one (cutting out Cable, Astonishing X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and The New X-Men). It seems that most of the x-title issues can be summed up as simply big event crossovers (that you had to get every X-book to follow) or filler issues (that the x-men whine about how they got screwed over during the latest crossover event). The two exceptions to this wonderful writing formula were Astonishing X-Men and the new X-Force. Well astonishing has joined the other X-books and gone to crap after Josh Whedon quit writing the book but X-Force has stayed relatively strong and on the top of my read pile (who doesn’t like a crazy feral mutant hit team…that uses its powers for good and not evil).

Finally I took a good look at my DC titles. I cut Supergirl from the list very quickly (why have I been buying this book without having read an issue for six months) but then I had to do some deep thinking. Teen Titans…gone! Over the last year all but one of the founding members of this incarnation of the titans has either left the team or died. Keep in mind I loved Young Justice (yes I know guilty pleasure) and this incarnation of the titans so this was a hard cut but the team I loved reading about was gone. My final cut was the Justice League of America. This was an especially hard cut because it was Grant Morison’s run on JLA that had got me back into comics back in the mid-90s and I had collected the line ever since. I cannot even tell you what is wrong with this title, just that I haven’t read the last three issues that I have purchased.

After this latest round cuts, I am left purchasing only one DC title (JSA), only three Marvel titles (New Avengers, X-force, and Thor), and a small amount of books from other publishers (the books from Star Wars, Dragonlance, and Forgotten Realms lines). I personally wonder if I am outgrowing comics or if it’s just that the writing has become so bad that I cannot rationalize spending money on it.

Monsterpocaplypse Series three announced!

It seems like the news just keeps coming from Privateer Press! It was leaked today that the third series of Monsterpocaplypse, All Your Base, will be released in July. According to http://www.icv2.com/ , “The July Monsterpocalypse releases include Monsterpocalypse Series 3: All Your Base Monster Boosters (MSRP $15.99), which contains a new reference card plus 4 random morphers and 1 corresponding Metamorph Monster Hyper Form, and Monsterpocalypse Series 3: All Your Base Unit Boosters (MSRP $12.99), which contain four random units (1 rare, 1 uncommon, and 2 common) plus 1 random installation.” No pictures are available yet beside the box art but it does seem like there will be a new type of monster that can “morph” and faction specific buildings known as installations.

Privateer Press Plastic models finally revealed

We finally have pictures of Privateer Press’ first plastic models, the Exemplar Bastions. This new plastic box set comes with a full unit of 5 Bastions (normally these medium base Warmachine units come with only 3 modules and cost more money). It was accidently leaked a few months ago that the company was going to begin producing some of their units in plastic in an attempt to keep down their production cost. This development has caused a large amount of controversy within the Privateer Press fan base and the official forums have been filled with declarations of keep PP all metal. The controversy has mainly stemmed from the facts that the company has always mooched the use of plastic miniatures and presented its products as “full-metal fantasy”. I personally have mixed feelings. I do like the “feeling” of playing with metal models (I still remember frowning the first time when I picked up a plastic Space Marine Dreadnought from GW) but I prefer to build plastic models over metal. Plastic is just so much easier to work with. I have mixed feelings on the cost of this new set. On one hand the units is five dollars cheaper than a unit of five plastic GW Terminators and is about thirty bucks cheaper than what a full unit of five would have cost if made of metal. On the other hand I was expecting the box set to be a bit cheaper. I’m not saying that the box set is overpriced; I was just thinking it would have been slightly cheaper (like $40 or under). I don’t know why because the unit is still cheaper than the industry standard (let’s face it, like it or not, Games Workshop sets the miniature game industry standard). How do these new plastic models look? Take a better look for yourself. The front page of the Privateer Press websight has a 360 view of the models.

Spring Cleaning

Most everyone that has been to my home knows that the extra bedroom is effectively a walk-in closet for all of my collectables and gaming stuff. This is my man room done in the geek. Well, this room also seems to serve the whole family as a “junk room” that everything and anything that doesn’t have a home gets thrown in. This “out of sight out of mind” mentality inevitable leads to me having to spend a whole day cleaning the room about once every six months or so. Since I basically have the week off I decided that I would clean the whole house today. I started by cleaning in the living room. Before very long there were several piles of stuff that needed a new home. It quickly became apparent that I would have to clean out the “game room”. To make a long story short, my efforts in the living room were quickly abandoned so that I could clean up “my room”. My god were did all of his crap come from! The closet is now officially stacked to the ceiling with boxes, my walls are filled up with my “Star Wars wallpaper”, and I don’t think that I have any shelf space left (or anyplace to put a new shelf for that matter). I rediscovered many long lost items that I apparently just cannot live without (I did throw away three bags worth of trash). Here is a list of the some of the surprises that I found:

-- Games Workshop packaging from the late 1990s. (I actually kept one of the boxes)
-- Figures for almost every 40K army (when the hell did I get a box of Tau Fire-warriors)
--Dragon Dice (oh, how nice. Now put that back on the shelf for another 6 years)
-- Lego Darth Vader
-- About 5 empty cans of spay paint (and I saved these because….)
-- Huh, that’s were my wife’s scrap booking stuff went.
-- About 15 fake pumpkins.
-- 3 Odyssey gaming shirts (thought I had given these to Nate and Ricky)
--Multiple Axis and Allies pieces.

After only seven hours I had the room wiped into shape. How did I get all of this crap? I have to admit that it's totally out of control. Good thing it’s clean now, because our group needs a new place to play (the floor is clean and the middle of the room is ready to set up a table). Now I just have to explain to my wife why the living room is still destroyed.

Here’s some picks of the final product.

Metamorphosis

About two weeks ago Privateer Press released the newest expansion book for their tabletop miniature game Hordes. The book release came just a week after the company announced that they were updating both of their miniature games to a second edition, known as Mark II. This lead many people to ask, “Why should I waste money on buying Metamorphosis if I can only use it for a year”. The answer is twofold. First, this book is awesome in oh so many ways. Secondly, the rules in this book will be tournament legal for over a year, not to mention you can use these rules as long as you want (its not like when Mark II comes out Privateer Press is going to send a hit team to your house and take the book away from you).

Metamorphosis is 176 pages of full color gaming goodness. The fluff in the books is great and becoming more and more intertwined with the fluff in the Warmachine books. The fiction can be hard to follow, especially if you haven’t read the fluff in the previous Hordes books. I actually had to ask our local Iron Kingdoms expert to clarify several story plots (mainly because I had skipped the fiction parts of the previous book, Evolution. To sum up, the Skorne have a new leader, the Circle is still getting their butts kicked (oh, and pissing of Dragons... it’s their new job really), the Trollbloods are still getting kicked off of their land, and Legion is still mutating and spreading blight (plus they get “Thagrosh, the Messiah”, the best name for a model ever). Ok, on second thought the fluff is still good but the story line really didn’t advance that much.

Rules wise every faction got a lot of stuff in this book. It is one of the few Privateer Press expansion books that all the factions made out equally in. All of the new warlocks are just nasty and have great potential. This is especially true of their feats. Gone are the feats that you look at and go, “this is a great feat, if I wasn’t playing against a Warmachine faction”. So what did each faction get exactly?

Trollbloods: If you had to rank the four factions in Metamorphosis the trolls are in last place. The fact that they can use all of the great new minion models does bring them up even with the other factions. First, I’m not impressed with their character warbeast, Mulg the Ancient. He is great with Doomshaper, either version, but otherwise he is too expensive (points or actually cash). I’m also disappointed that his amour isn’t higher (the model does look like he’s made of a mountain after all). Like I said before all of the new warlocks are great and this is especially true of trolls. I especially like Calandra (and the fact that I can now say “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings”). For me the other new troll models to take note of are the Troll Whelps. These guys are all-around great. The models are great, the fluff behind them is entertaining, and they are very useful game wise.

Circle of Orboross: The Circle models in this book has pushed me over the edge and convinced me that I should start a Circle army as my second Hordes faction. First I’m not in love with either of the new epic warlocks. I actually prefer Kaya’s and Krueger’s nonepic versions. Mohsar the Desertwalker does interest me and I cannot wait to play with him. His eight fury along with his “Maltreatment” ability should make it possible for people to run tons of beast with him. The circle’s character warbeast is my favorite one out of the new character warbeast (of course I’ve always preferred the “stone” warbeast over the fury ones). It is a pumped up Woldwarden for jus a few more points. The model for the Megalith looks great but unfortunately it is going to cost you a arm and a leg to get one (I’m guessing it will break the $50 dollar mark). I also really like the new units and plan on getting both of them (How can you not get magical laser turrets made of stone or more scantily clad feral chicks). The rest of the new circle stuff is middle of the road except for one exception. That exception is the Shadowhorn Satyr. His rules are decent but his model is one of the worst miniatures that I have ever seen privateer press make. It is so bad that I would refuse to ever buy it even if it had the best game rules ever.

Skorne: So much tabletop goodness and so little time. Epic Morghol is the Chuck Norris of the Iron Kingdoms (yes, he actually invented sliced bread). The other new warlocks are also great and will see a lot of table time. I actually plan on getting everything that is Skorne in this book. The Skorne character warbeast is great and will cost about twenty bucks less than any of the others. Most importantly Skorne got a much needed boost with a huge amount of pathfinder and some advanced deploy. The faction also got two extremely useful solos in the form of the Void Spirit and the Extoller Soulward. These additions should make the scone significantly more competitive in scenario play (since the faction that had nothing to get around terrain now can just dance over it). I’m actually thinking of sending a love letter to Privateer Press for making Skorne so good.

Legion of Everblight: What can I say? Just when I thought this faction couldn’t get any better it does. It just possible gets the three best Warlocks in the book. Lylyth is even more shooty death than ever, Thagrosh is even more of a beat stick (and gets the best title, “the Messiah”) and their new warlock Absylonia has a great toolbox of abilities. Their character warbeast is a three headed mini-me of the dragon Everblight and will be an absolute pain to play against (3 boostable, MAT 7, Str 15 attacks of death anyone). Their new warbeast, the Nephilim Protector, is going to see a lot of play and greatly increase the survivability of legion warlocks (yep, they really needed that).

Minions: The new minor warlocks are brilliant and a great move by privateer. Since the minor warlocks are not real warlocks it stops people from playing pure Minion list (guess the company learned from the whole Mercs mess in Warmachine). All of the new minor warlocks are extremely useful and will see a lot of play. The best part about them is that it lets us see some interesting new models (giant alligator, a big hungry snake thing, giant pig, and an armored polar bear). I have to admit that I’m especially looking forward to the alligator minor warlock that is wearing the top hat.

Nine hours, eight games.

For the first time in a long while I hosted a board game day. It was just a small affair that involved Buddy, the boy, Sam and I (originally it was just suppose to be me and Buddy but it evolved). Traditionally I prefer to play long board games like Axis and Allies or Twilight Imperium (you know long games that usually end up killing over half of your weekend) but this time we decided to try and fit in as many games as possible.

The day started around 10 AM when me and they boy sat down for a game of Monsterpocalypse. We had both been looking forward to trying out one of the new boards from the “Map Pack”. After my son begged me not to use the Martian Menace faction (“No more space ships Daddy”) I decided to use the Terrasaurs faction (“fine I’ll play with the Godzilla dinosaurs then”). He quickly decided to play with the Planet Eaters. Our early game was on the slow side and his shooting units dominated my hand-to-hand units. Unfortunately for him, I was able to close with my monster very quickly. Before we knew it I had slammed, thrown, bashed his monster through about six buildings (making roaring noises and doing my best Hulk Hogan pose the whole time… note to self do not go over board on taunting ten year old). His monster was finished off when I actually did 4 damage to his monster in one turn.

After about an hour of M-poc we moved on to New World (a variation of Carcassone). My son really enjoys the Carcassone line of games and was extremely excited to be playing it (despite his constant eye rolling as I talk about having fun with Meeples) . This was my first time playing a Carcassone game with only two players. It was still very enjoyable but the game actually takes longer to play than normal and man those tile piles are huge. The boy got an early lead and stayed ahead for the whole game. I did almost catch up with him at the end but he still won out (I had to endure many yells of “I won” and a very long victory dance).

By this time Sam and Buddy had arrived. I pulled out Rumis believing that it would be a game that my sister would enjoy. Rumis is basically a 3-D version Blokus, if that doesn’t help think of it as Tetris the board game (it’s more fun than it sounds…really). The four of us got in two quick games. I won the first game and Buddy won the second. Sam loved the game so much that she wanted to know were she could pick up her own copy (the answer is Target, On-line, or Barns & Noble). Sam had to go back to Tampa so Buddy and I got down to playing a war game.

Recently I decided that I needed some two player war games, since it is very difficult to get a large group together to play a good war board game. One of the games that I acquired for this purpose was Axis & Allies Guadalcanal. This is the game that we decided to play (War of the Ring and Memoir ’44 were our other available options). I played Japan and Buddy was the USA. It was only my second time playing and his first so we had to go over the rule book pretty well. We both kept the game close but I did win out. This game plays completely different from a normal A&A variant and is really a whole new game that simple uses Axis and Allies game pieces. In the end, we both decided that the game was very balanced and was fun. The only bad thing is we think that the game will have a limited replay value. After about playing 4 times or so this game will probable end up on one of my game shelves for a year or two. To be honest this game is a bit overpriced for a game that has limited replay value.

After this game the boy came back out from the computer room to join us in a game of Zombies!!! I’ve talked about this game enough so I’m not really going to go into it besides….shortest game of Zombie killing goodness ever. The cabin, the tile that you win the game on, showed up on turn 6 and the game was over within 10 turns or so after that. I won but the most memorable part was the boy getting stuck in the pet cemetery for the whole game (after I told him to stay away from it as I ran away from it). Buddy knew he would have to leave soon so after this game we quickly played another game of New World. Not a bad day of gaming, and we got it all in by 7 PM.

All night long....

I know that I haven’t posted in a very long time so I figured it was time to start up again. Last night we had our last gaming night at Nate and John’s Sandford apartment before they move out. I got to the apartment around 7 pm and the night was already in progress. Nate, John and Gilbert were in the middle of their third game of Magic the Gathering. I was desperately trying to get through the rules for Descent: Road to Legend but it quickly became obvious that it was going to take me an hour to get the rules down so we decided to play Zombies!!! 4: The End instead. After going over the rules with Tim and Gilbert we were off to kill zombie dogs! The Zombies!!! Series of games is a very fun “beer and pretzels” game that I have discussed here before. I suspected before that this game would be made better with the consumption of alcohol and now I know that this theory is correct (not to say that alcohol is required to play this game since I was stone sober). We finished the zombie game at about 10 pm and not wanting to start a game of Descent that late at night we decided to move on to Magic. We played “rainbow magic”, a special five-player variation of Magic, where each player has a different, single-color deck. You win by killing the two players playing the opposed colors to yours (i.e. a green deck wins if the black and blue players die). Everyone agreed that it was the best game of Magic that we had played in a very long time (I won with a white deck). That game took about 90 minutes so we decided to change colors and play again. Well this game took forever. I was killed pretty early and actually was falling asleep while Gilbert and John tortured Nate and Tim, both of which could do nothing against the blue and white decks being used by John and Gilbert. After that game I was waken up as Tim left. John had also gone to bed but I decided to play “one more game of Magic” with Nate and Gilbert. Well about 6 games and three hours latter it was 4 am and I went “crud, I have to be up in about five hours”. It was a good all night gaming session like I haven’t done in years. We did decide that we need to get together about every six weeks or so and try to play a Descent: Road to Legend campaign. It looks really fun. Well hopefully I’ll have more updates between that and the other hobby stuff that I’m doing currently.