The cast of characters

Sorry that it has taken so long for me to get back on track here but hopefully I’ll be writing up the D&D campaign summary notes today. First I wanted to write a character background summary and post it. Some of the backgrounds are more fleshed out than others but hopefully that will change the more we play.

• Rochor (Played by John) - Rochor is a young goliath warden that has been forced out of his ancestral home by a large tribe of Giants, led by the infamous Troog Ironclub. This tribe killed or enslaved Rochor’s whole clan and made the goliath’s caverns their new lair. Rochor only escaped this fate because he was out hunting at the time of the invasion. When he returned from hunting he found that there was nothing he could do to save his home from the giants. He tried to rescue his enslaved clansmen but failed. The only item that he could even salvage from his home was the “Oath Stone”. This polished piece of marble was used by the goliath clan to seal every marriage, was sworn on at coming of age ceremony, and presided in a place of honor during funerals. The Oath Stone is Rochors most precious possession and he carries it in his backpack wherever he goes. After wondering aimlessly for several years the young goliath eventually settled down in the small village of Miners Haven. He was made a deputy by the town’s sheriff, Tolin Goldenhammer. The old dwarf had taken the youth under his wing and trained him to be his replacement. After a year Tolin felt that Rochor was ready, so the long beard left the mainly human village of Miners Haven for his clan’s home in the nearby mountains. Rochor is now the new sheriff of Miners Haven.
• Labya Vagee (played by Gil) - Labya Vagee is a deva cleric of Sehanine Moonbow. Like most of her kind she has lived and died many times before and this body is only her current form of existence. Labya has long worshiped the goddess Sehanine but it is only in her most recent incarnation that she decided to become a cleric. The memories of the many atrocities preformed during her most recent lives forced the “young” deva into a life of serving others and spreading joy. She traveled from town to town for several years ministering to the needy and spreading joy wherever she went. Eventually she met a young gruff goliath named Rachor that had lost everything that he had held dear. The two became fast friends and Labya settled down (at least for now) in the town that he was a deputy in. After Rochor became sheriff of the small village he convinced Labya to become one of his deputies and the two now serve as protectors of the small village of Miners Haven.
• Reva Tallfellow (played by Tim) - Reva Tallfellow is the closest thing that the small village of Miners Haven has to a criminal underground. For several generations his family has run a small time operation that buys and sells items that cannot be found in most lawful establishments. An old secondhand store serves as a thin cover for the operation. It is a very transparent cover because it is well known that Reva is the only fence within 200 or 300 miles. Unfortunately, the territory around the town is sparsely populated so Reve is often struggling to keep his operation in “business”. The halfling rogue does have an understanding however with the local law enforcement. He will not steal from the locals but the caravans and miners that come through town are free game as long as he does not get caught. If he his caught a jail cell awaits him until the traveler leaves town. In exchange for the sheriff’s leniency Reva has to help with any problems that arise where his particular skill set will help solve the problem.
• Rhyme Tallfellow ("Jack" John) - Rhyme Tallfellow is Reva’s cousin. Rhyme comes from a famous family of bards that have long been known as the muses of Vesta (Vesta is the largest city on the frontier). Young Rhyme never really fit in with the rest of the family because he had no interest in the arts or music. In truth, Rhyme actually hates music and he especially hates minstrels. He was almost kicked out of his home by his father when he first enrolled in the local magic school but his mother prevented this. Eventually Rhyme became a fully fledged wizard and he left Vesta on his own accord to live with Reva in Miners Haven. It seems that Reva isn’t particularly happy about his cousin living with him but family is family after all.

That's what I have right now. I still need more information from Nate and Ricky on their caracters to flesh them out. Nate is a Dwarf Shaman (old man of mountain) and Ricky is a dragonborn Warlord (the other deputy).

Back after a busy week

I believe that it was the nine hour D&D game on Monday that has thrown off the rest of my week. The game was fun but it really did play havoc with the rest of my week. I have spent the rest off the week catching up on school work and wondering what happened to my free time. I did find some time to read most of the new Mk II Warmachine rules and even got one game in (I still haven’t got to reading the new terrain rules). I’m not going to go into details about the new rule set right now but I will say that it still feels like Warmachine. Luckily, this does not feel like a GW update that effectively voids your collection or greatly changes the basic rules or even the feel of the game for that matter.

I hope to catch up with updating over the weekend and next week. I plan on posting several updates on the D&D campaign as well as a more in-depth look into Warmachine Mk II.

Almost there....

We are less than a week away from getting to see the second edition of Warmachine, known as WARMACHINE Mk II, for the first time. Privateer Press has set up a website for people to download the new rules and to leave the company feedback on the new system of rules. The website is fieldtest.privateerpress.com. The PDF that will be found their will contain the basic rules and statistics for all of the models in the game. In one week we can all start playing with the new rules and begin to actually make informed opinions about the new edition. It’s a shame that we will have to wait for eight months before we get to see the Hordes rules and armies. This is especially true for me because I’ve really loved my Hordes armies lately.

Games Workshop strikes again

I would like to premise this BLOG entry by stating that I am not a Privateer Press fanboy. In fact, I prefer the fluff and models produced by Games Workshop; it’s just too bad that the Company’s attitude and business practices stink (3 editions of 40k in eight years comes to mind). I guess their arrogance comes from to many years on top with very little competition. To a great extent it was this arrogance that forced me away from GW, no matter how much I liked their models (and all of their games besides the new 40k editions). When it came time for me to get back into miniature wargaming I looked else where to fill the gap left by the GW line of games. To a great extent, GW actually forced me into the waiting arms of Privateer Press. Like I said before, I prefer the look of GW miniatures but Privateer’s business model is very customer friendly and their games play much smoother than their GW counterparts.

Anyway, the whole point in this BLOG entry is really to talk about GW’s latest slap in the face to its fan base. I’ve discussed in a previous entry how much I liked the web-comic Turn Signals on a Land Raider (http://tsoalr.com/ ). This strip is an obvious parody of wargaming and of 40k in general. The creator of the strip wanted to publish a compilation of his first 500 or so strips, thus he tried to get permission from GW to publish the book. GW’s response was as follows:

“So, in the case of TSOALR we’ve been very happy to let you put your web comics up as a bit of fun. However, we can’t let you make money off of what you’re doing because of the legal precedent it could set. So, I’m afraid there’s just no way for us to allow you to sell TSOALR prints. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It’s not that we don’t like what you do, it’s just that for various commercial reasons we’re unable to grant you permission to make commercial gain from what is, ultimately, selling GW-owned imagery.”

In other words GW is fine if you pimp their product for them but you should get nothing for you work. I would understand if TSOALR was actually breaking copy right law but it would actually be protected as a parody. The author could likely legally publish the compilation but in all likelihood he would have an expensive legal battle on his hand. Because of GW’s response TSOALR will soon end. I do not know if the website will soon come down as well, so I suggest if you want to check out this very entertaining comic you go check it out now at http://tsoalr.com/.

Squirrel Genocide

I told you squirrels are evil. This is really why we see all of those dead squirrels in the middle of the road. (as seen on http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/ )

My weekend

This weekend just hasn’t gone as planed at all. Originally I had planned on getting a lot of painting done (the Gatormen Posse, Squad of Mannikins, Alten Ashley, and the GW hill) but here we are with the weekend almost over and I’ve only dry brushed one Gatorman (at least Jen did get a good base coat on the hill). Keep in mind it’s not like I’ve had a bad weekend, I just didn’t get any of my painting done.


Base Coat on the Hill

Saturday morning was spent playing games with my son. We mainly played video games (Guitar Hero World Tour, Battle Front, and Age of Empires with my father) but we did get in one board game, Battleball. This game is a very simple game that simulates a futuristic version of football. At http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ the game’s background is described as “Global football has moved beyond the restrictive rules of the US Football League. Physical enhancements have made the sport more intense and more deadly. Players have developed distinctive skills to overpower enemy players. Some are fast. Some are strong. All are out to eliminate their opponents.”



Like I said the mechanics of this game are extremely simple but my son loves it. Each game piece’s base color corresponds with the color of a dice that you roll to move and tackle. Each player takes turns moving one guy and trying to score a TD (or just trying to knock the other team of the field). First person to score twice wins. Every time I play this game I really want to play Blood Bowl (especially when you consider Battleball is just a watered down version of Blood Bowl). Unfortunately, my Blood Bowl game is in the very back of the closet of doom (i.e. the closet that is filled up to the roof with my family’s stuff). Anyway, during the first half of the game I knocked the boy’s whole team off the field and scored. After that the dice gods abandoned me. He quickly scored two Touchdowns without much effort.

Today I got ready to paint and then I decided (of course) that I would rather play a game of Hordes. After getting to Decks and Duels, the local shop, it was decided to play a large Circle versus Legion game (1500 points per side). Gilbert and I each fielded 750 points (I had to borrow some of his models) of Circle and John and Kristina each filled 750 points of Legion (Two fracking epic Thagroshs). It was a fun close game (even if the first three of our turns consisted of mowing down the 15 shredders that our opponents fielded... who fields that many little warbeast). Gil’s whole army except for his warlock was wiped out (partly because I was out of position) but then we got an assassination run off on John’s Thagrosh (now forever to be known as Goulash). That left almost all of my force plus Gil’s warlock against Kristina’s Thagrosh, a Shredder, and a Carnivean. So that’s now three straight wins for me with Baldur. Still undefeated Baby!!! What I really learned from this game is that Sentry Stone & Mannikins are absolutely awesome (especially against other Hordes armies).

A short Circle update

My Circle army is coming along well. I’ve finished painting Baldur, a Woldwyrd, a Woldwarden, an unit of Shifting Stones, and a Sentry Stone with a full compliment of Mannikins. I also have a painted up a unit of Bog Trogs. I am now working on a unit of Gatormen and another Sentry Stone with a full compliment of Mannikins. I plan on buying another Woldwyrd and Krueger in the near future. No pictures as of yet (I forgot my camera when we gamed tonight) but I hope to add some soon (I personally think the army is turning out great).

So far I’ve won both of the two 500 point games that I’ve played. My first game was against Nate. He was playing a Darius list that was running 3 heavy jacks. I assassinated his caster on the third turn by using Mannikins to make forest and then useing Baldur’s Forest Walker ability to smack down Darius. Tonight I played John and his new Legion Thagrosh list. I assassinated Thagrosh on turn two. This occurred more because John messed up than any great skill on my part. He left Thagrosh with no focus on him and I shot him with a Woldwyrd and the finished him with a spell cast from the Woldwarden (it helped that I rolled really well).