Gears of War 3

I'm a fan of Gears of War, a game series that has one of the most intriguing semi-apocalyptic settings I've come across (Which aren't many, but still). And the game has worked its way up to it's third game, along with a small set of novels and graphic novels.

The games show primarily the story of two Gears (Soldiers), Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, childhood friends fighting in the war for the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) against the Locust, humanoid creatures that began a genocide campaign against human life.

The Locust come in a variety of forms, from Simple drones, to Boomers, to Kantus, to Berserkers. Aptly named due to their short temper. On top of that, they have severe myopia, stronger than any Locust of it's size category, and to top it off: It's the Locust Female.

Yes. I know what you're thinking. And yes. Yes they do.

Anyway, I've been following the story as much as I can. I've picked up two of the novels which are brilliant reads, and I own at least one of the Gears of War games (pretty sure I only have #2, but I'll pick up #1 eventually). The downside is that my Xbox 360 is dead, so I can't exactly go back and reminisce about the good ol' days of Gears of war.

What else I like about the game is that it's control system hasn't changed in it's two iterations of the game and I don't think it will in the third. It's a good system and I'm glad the only changes that have been made have been to refine it.

The third game comes out on the 20th September. Three days before I head off to the US. So because my Xbox 360 has died in the arse, and I haven't bothered to get it fixed because it'll cost an arm and a leg since it's out of warranty, I also haven't bothered to pre-order the game.

Scotty, however, is a man who has a backlog of pre-ordered games that stretches past his arm, so naturally he has a pre-order of Gears of War 3. So after work, the day it comes out on the 20th, I'm going to go to Scottys place, sit down and log into my Xbox-Live account, and play the 4-player campaign with Aaron and possibly Richard. If not, it'll be Gavin, Scotts Brother.

But that's my mission. Only a few hours at a time (because we all have work in the mornings) and only a few days before I leave. So the weekend before, I'm going to pack all my clothes and all my gear for the trip to Jenny. And then that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons/nights, I'm going to play my little heart out with Scotty and Co. Until I get kicked out of his house, of course.

Goddamn this is going to be awesome.

Gridlock

Last night we played a hilarious Monsterpocalypse game made up by rules on the spot. The new guy we have playing wanted to play a Four Player game, as there were enough of us playing that night.

So we started making up rules. Monsters only with no units, to start. We figured it would be too easy to play a game where we could just access each other. So we said we had to choose a map littered with buildings. But we also figured there was a problem with figures being able to jump over buildings and get to each other quicker than others.

Doesn't seem particularly fair. So we figured you couldn't move through buildings. They were infinitely high, and infinitely deep and you couldn't jump off or climb them.

Then I piped up with "All Buildings Have NO FLY ZONE". Which does exactly what we wanted. Choosing the map was surprisingly easy.

Earlier on we were talking about a particular map that scotty and I disliked using. He doesn't like it because people could easily disrupt his power base, and he could easily disrupt his opponents. But I remember looking at it ages ago and realised that there's no easy way to move a monster that doesn't have any skills that allow him to move around buildings across the map. So we played Killer Canals.



For those who aren't in the know: The squares with Yellow and Green borders are where you place your buildings. The dotted red and blue borders are where monsters are placed. The rest isn't important. Those are for units.

As an added silliness, we included Mega Armodax into the mix who has a ranged attack which will randomly shoot someone and shunt figures into nearby fires and buildings. we had a few reasons why he was present, my favourite was that he was strapped to an orbiting satellite and he's roaring down angrily at everyone on the map.

We also put the Privateer Press Building in the middle of the map covering 9 squares instead of 4 because the map is an odd number of sides. Since it's indestructable, and that Armodax strapped to a satellite was a bit too silly (pfft, whatever) we put Armodax on top of the building. And we can stop him from attacking next turn by attacking the PP Building. But in turn, for each building that was destroyed outside of his turn, he gained a Power Die. That was probably a bit excessive, but it was funny none the less. It added Tactics, according to Scotty.

So we had a Lord of Cthul, a Planet eater, a Guard Robot and a Shadow Sun Syndicate Ninja, being shot at by an angry Anklosaurus on a building. I think out of the large number of foundations we had, there was 1 building left not including the PP Building.

It was a good game and we may play it again.

Calamari Throne

Lately I've been really getting into my Nerdistry and working on my models. Inso much as to have mostly assembled my Behemoth, mostly re-assembled my Karchev, and begun painting my Blood Bowl team.

I even went out to get some spray paint and basing sand so that I could undercoat them. $41 later from a Games Workshop, I had these two items. Never again. $26 for a can of spray paint? I may as well go to Supercheap Auto. It's the wrong kind of spray paint, but damnit it'll be cheaper, surely. And $15 for 100g of sand? Yeah, I'm going to make these last a bloody long time, and next time I'm going to the beach.

Still, I've gotten into my models and started cleaning off flash and supergluing my fingers together in hopes to put the rest of them together. Luckily, I did! The downside? My Khador Behemoth looks goofy. He's in the proper stance that's advertised on the box, with one leg up... but I don't like that pose.

So I'm going to look for a Rock which will fit underneath the Behemoths foot. I could chase after some greenstuff, but a rock will add that little bit of stability this monstrous pewter figure will need. Probably should've thought about that when I first bought him a year ago.

Which reminds me, I do have to email PP-Frontdesk about a missing Bombard Cannon.

Alongside him is Karchev, the Terrible. Now I tried putting his legs together a long time ago, and eventually wrecked them to a poin that I just got a pair of new legs on order and now I'm using those which have glued together VERy nicely.

Then I had a look at a Plastic Battlebox that I picked up ages ago. I picked it up last year thinking "Yeah, I'll get two more Warjack kits out of it and have a Sorscha to have battlebox games with." When I opened it, I was under the presumption that I'd used one of the Warjack Kits, but I was lucky enough to have two. So I assembled a Marauder, and half assembled the Soon-To-Be Black Ivan which I have waiting for me.

I'm also going to go for a different paint scheme for my Khador. Black Ivan will be the same, and I think I'll paint Torch in the same Scheme, but the others I'm going to try and go for something like this:

Oh look, that's a MERCS Behemoth. You know what would look very similar if it got a rock under it's foot? The Khador Behemoth.

Funny that.

After all these guys, I'm going to paint up my FSA Dystopian Wars Fleet. I've got my battleboxes on hand, and my Dreadnought, Escorts and Destroyers are over at Kelvins since I slept in way too late to dash over there myself to pick them up on Saturday (damn you sleepy times and your voracious ways) so I asked him for the biggest favour of picking them up for me. Owe him a drink, that's for sure.

On Wednesday last week, I received an email asking if I wanted to have a game on Saturday. Liam, a guy I demo'd in January, was going to bring his brother and a few of his mates along. His brother knows how to play, but his mates don't and they wanted to have a demo game to learn.

Legion and Menoth? Easy done. I can borrow from Scotty and I have my own (Unpainted) Menoth Battlebox. Along with that, I have a Khador Battlebox (Naturally), a Cygnar Battlebox, a Cryx Battlebox which I bought for $20 second hand from Fastbreak, and a Trollblood Battlebox. And if I do some digging and Assembling, I can pull out a Skorne Battlebox. And I'm not sure if a Farrow Battlebox is sanctioned, but that's what I'm going to use anyway.

I really should get some generic tokens though.

Actually, that's something that kinda Irks me. Hordes Battleboxes are, as a general rule, 1 Large Warbeast, 2 of the same Light Warbeast. The Legion box is the exception because it has 4 of the same lesser warbeasts. Whereas Warmachine has 1 Large Warjack, then 2 different Light Warjacks, Khador with 2 different heavy Warjacks and Cryx have 1 Heavy and 3 lights, but 1 different from the other.

The point is that Warmachine has that little bit of diversity. More options. So while I have the official battleboxes for Hordes, I'm thinking of swapping out double figures with something of equal points, or theme. So for Skorne, change out a Cyclops Savage for a Basilisk Drake or Krea. Or even for a Cyclops Brute. Or swap out a Trollblood Impaler for a Bouncer. An argus for a Gorax. And one or two Shredders for Stingers or Harriers.

Things like that. /Ramble

Sunday day was a really good day though, and While Liams Brother and mates didn't turn up I still had a good couple of games against Liam. The game came out 2-1 in his favour. The first game was a ferocious assassination of Karchev, with Lord Carver walking around a corner with his feat active and plenty of fury. Karchev was left on 2 damage points (his movement) until a Farrow Brigand came up and tried his luck. He rolled JUST enough to destroy Karchev.

Second game was Epic Irusk versus the same Carver list. I'd all but massacred most of his unit of Brigands, and the Behemoth tore apart one Warhog in melee (WOO!), while he was slowly whittling away at my unit of Winterguard. Then he put Carver a little too far forward, due to his determination of eliminating my Winterguard, and made an easy access for my Great Bears of Gallowswood to charge him. Well, one. The other two were engaged with a Warhog (whom they promptly left very sorry).

Sadly, that didn't kill Carver. Irusk charged with 6 Focus. Not enough to kill him. Kovnik Joe charged him. Knocked him on his arse because he passed a tough roll. 3 Winterguard Figures shot into his face. Two passed Tough rolls and the Standard Bearer had to finish it off. So Win to me.

Last game we swapped factions. I used his pigs, and he used my Khador. Made up his own list, I'd help him with points, and game on. He used the old Witch and out came her Feat turn. I couldn't charge, I couldn't run, and any time I ended my movement within 14 inches of her, I stuffered a severe damage roll.

Carver, with the addition of his speed enhancing spell, walked up and attempted to kill her. She was left on about 7 health of 17 after some abysmal rolls. Then I realised I forgot to use my feat, which grants me extra damage dice. So out of curiosity, I rolled 2 dice to represent the missing damage dice from the two successful hits. The great Opposers, 6 and 1, rolled up. Exactly what I needed to destroy the Old Witch of Khador.

Then on his turn, the Old Witch did what was expected: She moved in with her twin claws, and smacked the living shit out of Carver. And when my first tough roll came up, I failed. Win: Liam.

But all though the game we talked about the next Hordes Expansion: Domination. To which comes the entire point of the post name:

Yeah, the Legion are looking a little Cthulian. But that's cool.

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.