Monpoc Irk

Monday morning I get a call from my LGS asking me to come in Tuesday Night for a Demo Game of Monsterpocalypse. Sounds good, I say. I haven't played Monpoc in quite a long time, but I'm keen to start up again. Just not against Scott.

So I rocked up there, and met the bloke. He was keen to learn and he was happy to have many things taught to him, such as explaining how rules fully interact, and I was prepared to give him that.

Now I'm a lazy person. I also have a large collection of Monpoc Stuff. So the idea of having to carry my stuff to work and then to the LGS is a trustrating one. There's at least two green bags involved in the delivery going to the only place I play it at.

So I put up the suggestion to the owner a long time ago, “Can I leave my Monpoc here? In return you can use it for the Free For All games days that I can't attend.” “Sure thing” he said. We all win, really. I don't have to cart about all my Monpoc stuff and he gets a chance to introduce more people to it.

The other day however, the store was shifted about. Stuff that he didn't need was thrown away. But the owner made sure that what didn't belong to him, namely my Monpoc, was stored away so that it could be found. The Owner isn't a dull lad, he knows his responsibilities.

But come last night, I pull out my Monpoc stuff and even tip it out of the Greenbag and look at it before thinking “... I'm missing something.”

I looked out across the vast field of green, purple, grey and tan plastic monstrosities, only to find I'm missing something just as crucial as the monsters: Units. A small white box, with the Privateer Press Stamp on the front, filled almost to the Brim with Monsterpocalypse Units. Of Tentacled Slugs, of Drill-nosed Brawlers, of Subterran Tanks and Lovecraft-ian Flyers.

Nowhere to be found.

And it's been irking me ever since. Not at the LGS owner, he was looking after them as best he can which was leaving them where they were and putting them in a safe place when he had to move them. He was extremely apologetic as well and offered to replace everything once I figure out how much it all cost, and I'm going to try and work something out with him regarding his Monpoc Stock as well.

No, what I'm annoyed at is that it's gone. All that collecting is just gone. Now, when I wanted to get back into Monpoc, I can't play using my units. I have everything else, but I just don't have any units.

On top of that, my Voltron Box is gone too. Though I think I may have that at home. I'm going to have to check on that one.

Still. Annoying. Especially when it's possible that someone may have tossed it thinking it was something else, or someone may have thought they deserved a five finger discount. I'll give em five fingers alright.

“He did it” “No, he did it”

Much like the Two Headed Ogre of Warcraft II, Sturm and Drang enter the annals of Hordes with two conflicting heads and a thirst for war. And what a thirst for war they have.



In my mind, I see this guy much like Kromac, the Ravenous. Two forms that change all through the game. The difference is that Sturm 'n Drang are two completely different characters. They just inhabit the same body. So each round, they alternate the dominant Mind. No changing between during activations, just alternating between rounds.

Now in Warmachine and Hordes, there's two extremes: Spellcaster and Warrior. Yes, there are sneaky and ranged fellas here and there, but if you're going to have two extremes in one then you've got your Spellcaster and your Warrior.

In just their two stat-blocks, they show that as well. While the Warrior, who I assume is Drang, has two heavy hitting fists that can toss someone away without a care in the world, Sturm has a Magical ranged attack called “Brain Burn” which in my mind is everyone within a short range suddenly getting a massive headache while he thinks on things.



The interesting thing though is that through a PPInsider post, a spoiler was provided for everyone to salivate over. Apparently there's two spell lists for each ego. So while Drang can't upkeep any spells, he may be able to cast upkeep spells for Sturm to upkeep. Otherwise, they'll just have massively different spell lists, such as one providing massive battlegroup benefits while the other gives unit and one time benefits.

It's all an interesting gear up and I'm quite excited to check out this guy once he's released.

Blood Bowl Advert

Yep. I approve.

Enjoy Medway Comeback Tour - 23rd Sept, 17 October

Six weeks from now I'm headed back to the US to see my lovely darling, Jennifer. It's been well over a year since I last saw her and it's about fucking time we saw each other again. It's been a hard fucking year because I know what I'm missing out on now.

Last year I had such an amazing time. I met her family in a lunch time barbeque (intimidating meeting the better part of the family in one go); we toured around Kalamazoo having dinner at restaurants and such; we even had half a day at the beach. It was the best time of my life. Even when she was sick, and we just sat down on the couch watching movies.

This year was meant to be her turn to take the Plunge to Australia. But due to circumstances, she had to push it back. I played it cool at first because I understood, her job is tighter than a Flys arsehole and what she does save has had big chunks taken out to go towards emergencies.

But after a bad day and a weeks worth of terrible sleep patterns, my cranky pants were giving me a wedgie. It wasn't her fault, but the poor girl copped some of the flak and I expressed how I wasn't happy with her knocking back her trip to March '12.

I had been mulling over it though. Not my knotted knickers, but the pushback. She wanted to be here for her Birthday. *I* wanted her here for her Birthday. So much fun was planned to have. But now to wait another 6 months? I was starting to lose my mind. I had offered her money, but she refused to accept it. So after having my tantrum I decided I'll go visit her again.

Now I think I said somewhere that I was going to go for Xmas this year. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. I can't afford the $3000+ for an Xmas Trip. My own finances aren't that awesome. But after getting my tax return after only 2 weeks (maybe less), money from my savings and the USD I had put into my bank account, I figured I might be pretty well set.

Well, at first I wasn't right. I gave V-Australia a call, because they're the same mob I went with last time. Last time, with a stop over at Indianapolis for GenCon, the flight cost me about $1,200-1,400 AUD. I could definitely afford that. But after being on hold to V-Australia for about 10-15 minutes, I finally got a quote at $2,400.

Okay, I'll have to borrow a little bit from Mum. That's fair enough, it's not a substantial amount, just about $400. No drams. Easy peasy, hand-on-squeegie. Surely nothing can go wrong here! Well Open Mouth, Enter Foot. All of my money is in my Savings Account, an account linked to my Primary account and, basically, makes it hard for me to take my money out.

So I requested the account to transfer it to my primary account. Did that on Thursday, when I got the quote. Money didn't come through until Sunday (A strange day for it to finalise) but I used the money to Bpay Mums Credit card.

My mistake though was calling V-Australia on Monday. I thought they didn't have trading hours over the weekend. I was wrong. So my last booking Auto-Cancelled. Not cool, but hopefully I'd make a new booking and get the same quote. It was better than expected! Instead of AU$2,395 I was offered AU$2,020! So a better quote! The change? Go through Minneapolis rather than through Detroit to get to K-zoo. So I locked it in and requested an extension to Thursday in case my finances didn't come through properly.

On the same day, I called up two other places to see if I could get a better quote. Hervey World Travel came up, at best, AU$1,855 for a one way trip just to Detroit. Right, no chance of getting something better there. So I called up Travel Centre. I gave her my details and she said she'd look up a good quote for me and would call me back

Come Wednesday, I have about 32 hours before my V-Australia Booking Automatically Cancels. I hadn't heard from Travel Centre. And the money to Mums account is still “Pending”. So I'm starting to get worried I'll miss my awesome flight deal with V-Australia. I even called up my bank to see what happened and they said "Yeah yeah, it's gone through. Give it another day, and if it hasn't give us a call back and we'll discuss a Dispute and get your money back".

That's all well and good, but what about my Fucking Ticket?! For FUCK sake, I only had so much time, I couldn't extend the booking again, and trying to get a definite answer from any form of bank? Well I may as well wish to shit gold bricks and send it to Richard Branson himself. The Virgin Blue Head Office is just a train ride away.

To get my mind off of things I focused on other things about the travel. Clothes will have to be getting to the warm side, because it's creeping through Autumn while I'm there; Camera and Charger will have to get packed; As much as I hate to use it, I'll pack my PSP for the flight over because its really fucking boring in Cattle Class being stuck between two strangers, one of whom will always want to chat about something (which I have little to no interest in doing).

The annoying thing is that the battery only lasts for a handful of hours constantly playing games. Not even a handful, it's like 4 hours tops. So I need a charger. Not just any old charger, I have one that plugs into the walls here at home, and the planes don't have one of them. I need a USB Charger. So I looked up on Ebay and got one for $2.50. Should be here soon. Then I worked out my spare dosh last week and downloaded Tactics Ogre for the PSP. It'll hopefully be a long game and I'll be able to take my time with it. Earphones on, USB Charger plugged into the armrest and I'm off to the land of whatchamacallit for some medieval fighting.

Then when I get there, I'll put away the bugger of a thing and just leave it be. I doubt I'll need it again over the next 3-4 weeks. Jenny is coming up with many plans for us to do and I'm all for them. Doing a Charity Walk for Alzheimers, going to a beachhouse with her family, her Birthday which will be awesome, dinner at Main Street Pub, celebrate our 22nd month being together, and even more on top of that. So it's going to be a very awesome 3-4 weeks.

Come Thursday, the big day. The last day I have to buy Tickets to the US of Awesome-Girlfriend-istan. (That's a weird name when you think about it) What do you think happens? That's right. Fucking nothing. Mum's account hasn't gotten the money, money that I sent as a Bpay payment on a Sunday and should've gone through Wednesday at the Latest. But No, now I've made my claim and just have to wait 10-14 working days to get my money back.

Luckily, Mum came to the rescue and did the simple thing of increasing her credit limit. I really owe Mum on this. But don't tell her that. It'll go to her head and she'll just topple over.

Now everything is slowly on the up and up. Everything is slotting into place very nicely. I can't wait to get these 6 weeks over and done with so that I can be there. Wait, no. It's 5 weeks. Because our 22nd Month is 8 weeks from the date of this posting. Happy 20th Month Jenny. I love you and I will see you very soon.

Home Pitch

Y'know, i'm going to have to start designing my Bloodbowl table because I want it to look cool. The pitch, the Dugouts, a parking spot for the Squiggoth, a Dice Tower... It'll be a pretty awesome table because I damn well want it to be.

We have to get down the basics, such as the pitch itself. Kel has his own pitch that he made, using a 60x90cm board, then gotten a GW Grass Mat and laid it over. Then he marked out the lines, drill on a handle and Bob Biffords your Uncle: he has a portable table.

Now I like that idea, it's simple and it works out well. If I want a Blood Bowl Game, I can just whip out that baby and Game On. Nice and Cheap. Not to mention reliable.

But for the one day that I get to make my Nerd Hold, I will want a couple of tables that are permanent looking. So one of which will be the Blood Bowl table, because nothing changes on that table except the models that play on it.

So I'm going to think about the Skarboyz Home Field. How would I build it? W hat would I put on it? What would be cool to have in it?

Well I'll need dugouts. That should be easy enough. When I do the main table, cut out some squares in the board and cut the grass out after that. The get some Tack Nails and some glue and secure it underneath with a thinner board.

There's a parking spot for the Touring Squiggoth “Skarboyz Biggest Fan”. He'll want to see the game, so he'll need a front on view. I may put him at the Away Teams end, so that they feel a little threatened when they go to make a touchdown.

The Enemy of my Friend gets Eaten – The touring squiggoth is well aware that he shouldn't eat enemy players. However, occasionally he just gets so mad he can't help himself. After an enemy player makes a successful touchdown, the squiggoth rolls a D6. On a roll of a 1, the squiggoth eats the player that just made a touchdown. The player is not dead, however it cannot be retrieved unti the end of the half. The player has -2 to anything to do with the ball (intercept, catch, pass, pickup) as their hands are slippery, and they gain the Foul Appearance mutation until the end of the match.

I also want to make a Dice Tower. I've had a look at a couple of different internal designs for dice towers (the standard 3 ramps; the entropy tower where there's loads of sticks in the way of the tunnel; spiral tower) and I think they're all very cool, and different which is the best part.

But there's the problem of outer design because I don't know what to do with it. I could cover it in Blood Bowl Adverts; I could put on a rockin stage for the Skarboyz Cheerleading Band; I could make a commentators box for Bob Bifford and Jim Johnson. Those are three (rather cool) options. And this will be up the Home Team end so that it's not in the way of players.

Then I'll have to have grandstands. And the only image in my head for the grandstands is a bunch of cartoon fantasy characters jumping and cheering on a long strip of paper which is stuck onto a set of paddlepop seats.

I dunno. May as well figure out what to do with the first set, though before I head anywhere.

A Band of Orcs

Okay. This is very cool. This is what I call a Blood Bowl "Cheerleader" Band.

I could make a stage for them on top of the Touring Squiggoth's Tusks. Nah, that'd be stupid.

http://abandoforcs.com