Ben's Gaming World

TheBattleForGreenwayMound

2010-03-28T13:31:00.001-05:00

Scenario – Battle for Greenway Mound

Objective: Both armies clash with their goal to capture a great hill within the center of the table.

Terrain: The field is open and hilly, with sparse vegetation and some rocky outcroppings. The rocky outcroppings can be either difficult terrain or impassible dependant on their size and shape. The main feature is at the center of the table a 12 inch diameter hill is placed. Place terrain as described above in a mutually agreeable fasion.

Deployment. See the below map for a reference to deployment. Armies deploy in the corners of the table. Draw a straight line from 18 inches in on the long table edge and 12 inches in on the short table edge. The deployment zone is between this line and the board edge. Both the left and right hand corners may be used on a player’s board edge.

Who goes first? Both players roll a d6. The player who finishes deploying first gains a plus 1 to this roll. The highest roll may choose to go first or second.

Length of Game: At the end of 4 turns, roll a d6. The game ends on a roll of a 5 or more. Roll again at each following turn that the game does not end, adding 1 to the roll for each turn that has passed since turn 4. Example, the game did not end on turn 4 or 5 so at the end of turn 6 the roll is at a +2. The game also ends when time is called.

Victory conditions: In order to win this scenario a player must have a unit with a banner closest to the hill. If both players have units with a banner in them on the hill, then the player with the greatest unit strength is the winner. If both players have no units remaining at the end of the game with banners, the game is considered a draw.

Tournament BPs: All scores are cumulative and a unit can be counted for scoring one of these twice.

10 points for scoring the winning condition

5 points for having a unit with a banner on the hill at the end of the game

5 points for destroying all of your opponents units that had banners by the end of the game

3 points if you had a unit with a banner on the hill at any point during the game

3 points if you had a unit with a banner and unit strength 20+ on the hill at the end of the game

2 points if you had all of your banners survive the game

2 points for having a unit of any type on the hill at the end of the game

War of the Rings

2009-06-29T19:20:00.002-05:00

Well, started migrating my Mordor stuff for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game by Games-Workshop to their new product, The War of the Ring. I honestly haven't played the game itself yet, but the Last Square here in Madison had a Swap day where people can get a both and sell their old stuff. There was a gent there with great deals on used and old LotR figs and picked up most of this there. There is roughly 150 foot orcs, 12 warg riders, I have 4 ringwraiths on foot, one on fellbeast, a bunch of other named characters and a little more. It will be a while before it is painted and I still need to pick up some more models.

A little better shot of the Ringwraiths. If it is on a brown base I painted it, there are the three I picked up that need to be stripped and repainted.

500 point challenge

2009-03-29T14:03:00.005-05:00

Here is the deal. This was started by midloo over on the www.wwhfb.com forums and was a great idea. I have two completed 2250+ armies fully painted, but I have always had Warriors of Chaos laying around. I stopped and picked up the book for them finally a week ago and thought, hey, these guys need to get finished and this would be a great way to motivate on my current work schedule to get them done.

So, here are the rules:
Here's the schedule:
--500 points painted by the end of March
--250 points every month after that

The purpose is to get that new army you've had sitting in a drawer for years off and running. Sometimes looking at the whole pile is overwhelming, this should help make that stack more approachable.

Please post the army you are working on and your initial 500pt list.

I started out at almost the end of March, even though I posted I was starting on the 16th. I had a bunch of assembly on chaos knights to complete and repair work on models. Still, I had a good chunk all ready started or completed so I am not worried about the first 500 point mark. At the first 500 point mark, here is the completed. In all honesty, this was all stuff that I have all ready finished for the army. I didn't hit a brush to any of this which probably isn't fair for the rest of them them. However, I did start 17 warriors with hand weapons and shields. I expect these guys to get me to the next 250 point mark, maybe a little further. Chaos is one of those armies that you can almost cheat and paint one model and make your mark. I will post my 2250 army later, but my total model count is 88 models with my current list. Considering I had a 34 model head start I plan on out pacing the marks in the remaining months and trying to get the thing to 3k fully painted. That should give me some selection at the 2250 point mark so I don't always have to play the same lists.

So, here are the picks of what is done so far:

Decided something silly

2008-04-27T23:25:00.002-05:00

Well, I am not sure if it was a good idea, but I have put my Circle up for quasi sale. I don't know. Sounds silly really. I really don't want to let them go. I love the models. It is the best painting I have ever done, well except for the redos on the dwarfs I am have been working on lately. I just am so frustrated with the game play for the Circle of Orboros stuff in Hordes, that I just don't want to play them any more. I don't know. Hate being so unsure of myself. Either way, I don't think there are going to be to many offers for over $850 for the lot from the local group and probably won't sell to anyone else. I think the models are safe for now...right up until someone makes me that offer I can't refuse.

On the minis front, I recently stripped a good chunk of my old dwarf army. I am going to be at Maruader's Mayhem in Ohio this fall and I really want the army to look top shape. I have completely redone a bolt thrower with engineer and that looks very clean and very good. I am also redoing the entire dwarf hammerer unit I have and have just about finished the first 5 plus a lord model to stand with them. Unfortunately, I think I will be swapping out the lord for shieldbearers and a different lord model...but he will make a nice thane with the list. Should get some pictures up here in the next week or so of the new dwarf stuff.

Thoughts on dwarfs in Warhammer Fantasy Battles

2008-04-22T00:59:00.002-05:00

Been asked for advice on dwarfs a lot lately and these are my thoughts on the units. I am not really advising anything on characters yet, but I will get around to writing a treatise on this as well. This is more on the lines of general advice for the units and which ones are really better, in my opinion, then others. These ratings are also more on the lines of thinking and all comers type list and not something that you might take against some specific armies. The ratings are in mugs of ale. The more mugs the better the choice with 5 being the best.

Characters

Lords
The Dwarf Lord
The best of the best for a dwarf to take for fighting characters, the dwarf lord is a expensive little guy but can be customized to many different tasks. In standard games around the 2000 point mark I would only recommend bringing him if you are playing with hammerers. Now, if you read my notes earlier then you know by now that hammerers are great and your dwarf lord will be great with these. Because of the high points cost for a dwarf lord, honestly you are looking at 250 with magic gear usually, that you should kit the guy with decent defensive gear. The shield bearers are great if you can actually find them, otherwise armor and shield with a rune of stone or a Master rune (MR) of gromril for armor save. I would also take some kind of ward save with this guy.

My personal gear on Dougan is usually MR of swiftness, 2 runes of cleaving on his axe, gromril armor with a rune of stone, and a MR of spite for a talisman. Solid build and helps keep hammerers alive when I go with great weapons with them.

The Runelord

Honestly, I have only ever used one when taking anvil lists. If you have read my other analysis on the Anvil of Doom that you know that it smells suckawith. He does add the dispel dice to your pool more then a runesmith, but his real lack in the fighting category vs. the dwarf lord makes this an easy switch out. I wouldn't take one unless including the anvil, and I wouldn't take an anvil unless the dwarf build was a gunline. That gunline build will be highly successful, but get old really fast.

Heroes
The Thane

Wow, this guy is really good. There are so many places that you can use a thane. Go little points and they are good, go moderate points good, go lots of points great. High toughness makes this guy hard for a lot of things to take down and depending on how you build your thane, you can have them outlive a lot of armies lords. I incude usually as many thanes as I can get by with, and a dwarf list at the 2000 point level can forgo taking a lord because the thane is nearly as good of a general. Dwarfs are worst at killing things in close combat, so most thane builds should focus somewhat on killing things.

Couple common or favorite thane builds -
Gromril armor with rune of stone wielding a great weapon (cheap)
Gromril armor with MR of gromril and a great weapon (moderate and durable)
Gromril armor with rune of stone wielding a great weapon bearing the MR of Kragg the grim, rune of fury and rune of cleaving (killing machine)

The Battle Standard Bearer

While technically this guy is a thane, he deserves his own entry. Every dwarf army from 1000 points on up must have a BSB. The game of warhammer can come down to one failed break test far too often, so having a re-roll there is critical. Additionally, the added bonus of having that extra combat resolution is just so good. Static combat resolution makes up for where the lack of killing power in your regular dwarfs lacks.

There is a debate as to whether to go runic gear or runic banner with this guy. I tend to go the runic banner to get more effect out of his static resolution and to provide other neat effects of magic banners. If going the magic banner route, I would almost always include the 5+ ward and rune of battle and then take your other magic rune of choice. Runic gear can pretty much go the way like the thane, just no great weapons.

Runesmiths

Far less costly then the runelord, these are functional anti magic kind of characters. I tend to take mine with two runes of spellbreaking and a single runesmith in games of 2000 points or so. I think a single runesmith with the advent of so many more magic heavy armies taking the stage is adequette, but also a must have investment. They lack in the close combat skills of thanes and it would be wise to equip them in a defensive nature. Just a standard hand weapon, shield and rune of stone is good here leaving points for anti magic a plenty.

Master Engineer

An interesting slot and character type. I like the idea and I wish I could take one more, but the other hero slots are so good and the character role that this guy fills just doesn't do it for me. I think the only time he is really worth it is when you are fielding a canon, and then it is to aid that canon (which the added wounds that he can make the canon do is great). Great idea, but currently only worth fielding if you are going to join him to a canon.

Core Units
The Dwarf Warrior or Clansmen
4 mugs of Ale
Dwarf warriors are the backbone of any dwarf army and a must. With the options for heavy armor, shields, and great weapons you can't go wrong with them and noone should go without in thier throng. Still, thier strength three is a strong weakness and great weapons greatly hamper thier survivability. Large units of a minimum of 24 should be taken. Generally if they are equiped with hand weapon and shield a minimum frontage of 5 is good and you can get buy with smaller frontages. If they are equipped with GW, then you want to expand the frontage to a min of 6 wide.

Quarellers (aka Crossbowdwarfs for ye old beards).
3 mugs of ale

Thier range is good and probably the best the missile troop in the game when equiped with shields. However, like other missile troops they are weak in combat and spread in lines for maximum shooting they will loose most any advantage they had in hth. Still a good choice and being plastic they are fairly cheap to collect. Equipping with shields goes a long way and they can be placed on a flank where they can deal easily with fast cav and the like and your opponent must dedicate something with a little oomf to deal with them.

Dwarf Thunderers
2 2/4 mugs of ale
Nearly as good as their crossbowmen counterparts, they have the same drawbacks as crossbowmen plus they are limited to a 24 inch range. However, the armor piercing ability of the handgun and the bonus to shooting makes up for a bunch. The cost of thunderers to crossbowmen makes quarrelers more effective for the dwarf player both in points and dollars. However, against heavy cavalry or in a moving army, thunderers are a must.

Longbeards
4 mugs of ale
Far better then clansmen of course. Still, the biggest plus for these guys is that they come with everything possible for a clansmen, but the stat line of an elite dwarf. Choose in a combat between your great weapons or the hand weapon and shield option dependant on what you face off against. When I get the models I need I will have the ability to field units of these 23-24 strong with one unit hand weapon and shield and the other unit GW.

Rangers
1 1/2 mugs of ale
If taken with just the bare essentials they aren't too bad with the scout rules but they just are so expensive pointwise that they just don't earn their points. Ever. Give them throwing axes is about the best way I can think to equip them and then you are looking at 15 points each, far more then any elite you can take. Leave them at home unless you are playing a really big game. These are really complete junk right now without even the old forester rules for moving through woods freely. Don't bother cause most of the time you will be deploying them like your other units.

Special Units
Hammerers
5 Mugs of ale
I love my hammerers equipped with the optional shields. Including the general makes them stubborn and nearly unbreakable in close combat. Not to mention the heavy hitting power of great weapons. Tie up a heavy unit of your opponents for a turn with your hammerers and then set up charges with your clansmen or a surprise attack from miners. Frontage wise you want to make them wide and shallow. A lot of armies will simply try to avoid this unit altogether so if they are wide they can cover a lot more ground and force your opponent to not engage a certain part of the field. Great with a rune of battle if you are including a lord to help make up for the lack of rank that often times happens with a wider, expensive unit.

Ironbreakers
4.7 mugs of ale
These guys are really, really good but compared to the hammerers you should take those over these every time. The ironbreakers depend on armor to defeat things in combat, so you want to add to their banner things that help their static combat results. Things like a rune of battle or the rune that doubles unit strength are really good with them. Additionally, you want to put a can opener for a character in here for when they fight armored stuff since they are poor at doing that themselves.

Miners
3 3/4 mugs of ale
When used correctly, they can be one of the best units available to you. Their limits are they are limited to special selections, unable to place characters, except with magic, with them when using the underground advancement, and the lack of the ability to take shields. Still, to be able to pop out behind the enemy lines with a unit of rock hard dwarfs in full rank and file with great weapons is just awe inspiring. Just be careful you don't get too foolhardy and get them in a spot where you can't get help to them. Their dwarfs, not mountains after all. Either go near minimum unit or go max of 20 if you are going to field them. Anything else is probably not going to cut it.

Slayers
3 1/2 mugs of ale
Slayers have alot of advantages and disadvantages though I think if you ignore them then you will be out a great unit. I know with the other elite choices, you find it hard to pick these guys over them. Still, they are unbreakable and this means that you can hold a unit forever. They have an unlimited champion option which makes them harder then heck in close combat, and combined with a dragon or daemon slayer they are a offensive force. If you can manage them a charge they will eat through most other hand to hand units, even high toughness ones!

The Cannon
2.5 mugs of ale
The dwarf canon is disappointing in general. While it does have its uses, it has a hard time really delivering that much needed punch to large monsters. Sure, sniper canon still work, but 1/3 of the time when rolling the multiple wounds you are going to fail to kill that lone, hero level wizard and that isn't good when you get those opportunities. With a Master engineer they get significantly better, but you lose a character slot. Use with care because generally a bolt thrower is better.

The Bolt Thrower
3 1/2 mugs of ale
On its own, the bolt thrower is very poor with a BS 3 making it more like a 2 star machine. Now stop, and consider the fact that you can take two for one special choice and the fact that one is only 45 points. Bolt throwers lend themselves well to some minor runes which up thier cost some, but I think equally advances thier points. They are great for shooting at large targets and they cannot blow up. You cannot count on them to hit though, and wounding can be an issue on those larger targets. With upgradable engineers for better BS these things are point for point better then canons really now.

The Stone Thrower
3 mugs of ale
I don't really care for this machine at all, though I know a lot of dwarf players swear by it. Personally, without runes, I don't think its worth the points and it is why I haven't bought one thus far. The template can kill alot of models when it is accurate, but it is a gamble. I think these should be saved for the experienced dwarf player.

Rare Units
The Organ Gun
5 mugs of ale
This thing is amazing in the new book and is as close to a must include as you can get. There is nothing like pointing that warmachine at a unit of light to moderately armored troops and getting that 10 on the artillery dice. I have wiped units of 6 chosen chaos knights with it as well as evaporating whole units around a character so that I could use the rest of my shooting phase to wipe out the character for big points.

The Flame Cannon
3 1/4 mugs of ale
Better then the organ gun because you can score more hits against alot of units, but they are not as good as I would like for its high points cost. If the organ gun wasn't so good currently, I would field one of these instead. I have seen them panic units of infantry right off the board on turn one before my opponent has had a turn. That can be a game winner right there.

The Gyrocopter
4 mugs of ale
Tactically speaking, the gyrocopter is the good rare choice. I wish you could put some runes on it, but oh well. It is vulnerable to high strength attacks and weapons like Skaven Jezzails, but it's ability to halt march moves and it's ability to flee charges like fast cavalry give it an edge. As well, its ability to move gives you something to do, but sit and wait for your opponents plan to unfold and hope you guessed right. I have used it to run down units I have broken and to help give myself something in a combat where the dwarfs managed to charge to help ensure the opponent was run down.

Hordes Circle Project

2008-03-27T00:31:00.002-05:00

I am going to provide a link to my Picasa online folder which should be viewable. I have a good chunk of my circle completed, and while the pictures aren't that good, they at least show the progress I have made. Let me know what you think from what you can see. I chose to use a goblin green (citadel paints) for the outside of the base instead of the traditional black. I did this for two reasons. First, visually, I like the way it makes the models look on the tabletop. Secondly, it unifies the force and enforces that natural scheme I want for my Circle force. With all of the green that is in circle, I used the goblin green for the bases as well as it seems to flow well with the green tones of the force. I did try traditional black bases and I just didn't care for it when I did the first unit I did for this army, the druids.

Right now as far as what paints I am using it is primarily Citadel Paints. The standard ones, though I will rave here about how great the Foundation paints are which I am finding ways after ways to include them in the figures. It does help that the Foundation range of paints lends themselves well to natural colors, which is a give for a Circle of Orboros army. I also have a few of the Privateer Press P3 paints, just 3 actually and those are really for my high elves and not this army, though I have used a touch of the red on some of the figures, especially the swamp gobbers.

Picasa Web Folder of Circle Goodness

Circle completion point
Total Points 2160
Total Value $759.61
Total Painted 46
Total Models 92
% Complete 50%
(including minions)

Total Circle Collection
Model/Unit
Casters
Krueger the Stormwrath
Morvahna the Autumnblade
Baldur the Stomcleaver
Kromac the Ravenous
Kaya the Wildborne
Stones
Sentry Stone
Sentry Stone
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones
Warbeasts
World Warden
World Warden
World Watcher
World Wyrd
World Wyrd
Argus
Argus
Gorax
Pureblood Warpwolf
Warpwolf
Warpwolf
Unit
Tharn Bloodtrackers
Extra 6 bloodtrackers
Wolves of Orboros UA
Wolves of Orboros
Extra 4 Wolves of Orboros
Druids of Orboros
Druids of Orboros
Tharn Ravagers
Tharn Wolfriders
Extra 2 Tharn Wolfriders
Solos
Lord of the Feast
Minions
Alten Ashley
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
Farrow Bone Grinders
Gatormen Posse
Extra 1 Gatormen Posse
Feragiest

Long time away

2008-02-25T15:51:00.003-06:00

When it comes to posting on this thing, I admit that it hasn't been on a high priority. However, I came upon something new that I am doing for miniature games and it is really driving my motivation to finish models. It isn't complicated, but certainly takes a little extra work. Basically, I am using a spreadsheet to manage my collection of figures for the army that I am currently painting. I included the dollar values of each of the miniatures (or units) as well as how many models in each, how many are finished in each, and then have the sheet calculate out total value, percentage completed, and other tidbits. I really can see progress with what I am working on. Hard numbers. While it doesn't really make a difference as you can obviously see the difference visually on the army. However, it makes me feel great when I chalk a modem or two off the list and see the percentage complete grow.

As you may know, I started playing Hordes by Privateer Press a while back. My chosen faction is Circle, and it has really been an upwards struggle for me to get myself around this army. Currently 24% complete painted and a horrid win/loss ratio that I have to work on.

Gaming, gaming, gaming

2007-10-28T15:18:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted in a while. I have a number of gaming things going on right now.

First, I have a DnD group running now. Just a small group, 4-5 players plus myself adventuring in Cormanthor forest in the Forgotten Realms. We have had 2 sessions now. I think they have been successful, though we missed the last two sessions. I will get some more up about them when I get a chance.

Next, I have a board game group that I have joined now. What a great way to spend your Saturday nights every other week. I am hoping to be able to get some game reviews up here as I play them. Last night was a Halloween themed game night, and if I could remember the names of the games we played, I would include a right up.

Finally, I have once again started another Warhammer army. I know, isn't so much of a surprise. This one is one I said I would never do. High elves. I am doing them in true pansy fashion and painting them in pink. I know there is a new book coming out for them, so I feel a little like a band wagon jumper. However, I have always wanted to paint an army of high elves in pink as really an insult to the army and now I get all gleeful when they defeat my opponents in their pink glee.

I had a couple of test games with the new elves. I have to say, I wouldn't write home about the new rules. There were some bonuses. I think the big one that everyone things is so broken is the always strike first or ASF that the new elves have. Overall, not a big bonus, but a little. The real unit I think that benifits from this is the spearmen. Wow. A unit of 2 ranks, banner, and 15 ASF attacks for under 150 points is pretty sweet. Yeah, they don't hit hard at all, but they are worth it I think like that. Swordmasters are the big talk of the book though, and yeah, they are good, but I have to admit they are frail and best in units of 7-10 arranged with no ranks. There isn't a point. They are expensive and live to get into combat and dish some damage. I am very impressed with the performance of my pheonix gaurd. They had a huge survivability when I played with them the other day. It was just a unit of 5, but they took a charge of 7 Wardancers, killed 2 due to ASF, and then the Wardancers unloaded the extra attack dance and charge on them and dished out something like 9 or 10 wounds to them. I then picked up enough armor and ward saves to only lose 3 models. Of course, the unit was only 5 strong and it was a 500 point game so they broke off of that. Yet, I think in a bigger game a unit of 15 of these bad boy elves are going to kick arse.

Anyways, hope to have some updates and pictures up in the near future.

Take care folks,

Ben

Gaming recently

2007-08-05T13:37:00.000-05:00

Just recently started putting together stuff for a Dungeon's and Dragons group and started collecting players. I don't know when I am going to get it to start. I am setting it in the Dalelands of the Realms, an area and a bit of a setting that I haven't used much in the past. It would appear that many of the group have never gamed under me before, so I am not much in doubt that there will be some new and interesting things that will happen.

Otherwise, I have moved and have been here in Madison now for about 2 months and really have had less gaming. Of course, at the beginning of July I was married to my wife (who I think I have a picture of elsewhere on this blog next to the giant dice). She is great and kind to me, though she seems to be more of a retired gamer then a gamer anymore. Of course, the joy of new marriage was shortly interrupted by the passing of my grandfather, which put a damper on things. I have not had a good gaming month in July, but still managed to pull of several games of Warhammer and managed to pull the top seed in the WWHFB - Madison region.

Game recommendation of the month - Cinaplexity. This game is great. I played it the other day at the Grumbling Dwarf Meet and Greet at Pegasus games here in Madison and it was a ton of fun. While I am not a huge movie buff, it was easy and would be great for playing at any kind of social gathering. It is the kind of game you can play after a few drinks, or with the family and simple enough that the rules are picked up by everyone in just a few minutes.

Moving sucks

2007-06-09T23:26:00.000-05:00

Let me tell ye folks. Moving is the most bogus BS that one has to do, and what an interruption to one's gaming life. I just haven't had enough chances to get games in. Course, I have had over 12 games of warhammer in the last month and a half. I shouldn't complain about this. Just about have my new place ready to go back to work at painting and getting a bunch of work done on my dwarf army. The move did one thing for me, it revealed a ton of models that I realize I should get painted. I am looking at knocking out another 8 of the old, OOP Ironbreakers. I use the guys for heavy armored dwarf warriors. They look really good for it, and match alot of the other older figures that I use for the list. I guess that comes with having collected the army since back in 99 or so when I started the game.

Thinking again about seeing if anyone might be interested in a Hero's Unlimited group. I have a great memory of the game, but I don't know if I can pull off the game as a GM well enough to do it justice. We will see how things go.

Privateer Press

2007-04-12T01:39:00.000-05:00

Just started playing Hordes, which is a Privateer Press game. The game mechanic, which is essentially the mechanic for their War Machine game. Of course, I don't care for the jacks that are in War Machine, so never picked that up. In hordes their are 4 factions though, and I chose Circle Orboros, a nature loving faction.

Here are a couple of pictures of my first full unit completely painted. I opted for green bases instead of the all black bases as I felt it compliments the models better and helps them stand out on the table. Hope you think they look good too.

Working on friends computer

2007-04-05T17:59:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I am at this really cool person's house right now working on their computer. She is really nice and stuff and her computer hates me, but that is ok.

Need a picture of her. Too bad, I don't have one. Sorry you geeks. Someday maybe you will know girls too.

WoW and Warhammer 7th

2006-09-03T09:58:00.000-05:00

First of all, welcome back World of Warcraft. I just started my subscription again and started playing. I forgot how much I liked that game, and how much it sucks up of my life. It is a great game though, alot of fun, all but a bit repetitive, but alot of fun. I now reside primarily on the Lightbringer server where I have a lvl 30 warrior as my main (very soon 31), Tauren and horde (of course), going by the name of Magnorock. I have a couple of buds on that server I know in real life, unfortunately all of them have lvl 60s, so I have a way to go before I am beefed up with them.

Next, Sept. 9th is the big day. Warhammer 7th edition releases. This will be the third different edition I have played fantasy in and while this edition doesn't see any giant changes, some of the preview rules and rumors seem to me to make a huge difference in the way most players will approach the game. For my dwarf army, this won't mount to much if anything. But my beastmen are going to reap alot of benifit I think, even if one major rule with ranks and another with skirmishers hurts them significantly. Magic, I think, is going to be weakening even more for spell casters, so my beastmen will instantly reap the reward of not having to take a second shaman for dispel dice. I haven't decided what his replacement is, but I am thinking it will be either a basic wargor for killing power or to dump it into model count such as another heard which my beastmen could sorely use. Add to that beasty list a giant for extra power punching ability and I think this list is going to start really coming around. I have my pre-order in for the Battle of Skull Pass set, and if I can get myself to like the smaller night goblins, there is going to be a new night gobbo army terrorizing the WWHFB.

League play-offs need to get finished for the Madison region, and I have made it to the final round. If there is any luck at all, I can get this game in tonight. I don't know. We are supposed to be playing board games and build a new gaming table at Andy and Brian's place so I don't know that we will get any real time to do anything. Kind of a bummer if that happens, but I will endeavor to catch that game after the regular Warhammer shinanigans. I really want to get this game in before we start crossing rules editions so we don't have any added confusion in this game.

Warhammer Online

2006-08-21T22:28:00.000-05:00

Just letting you folks know that the Warhammer Online full trailer is finished for the theatrical trailer. The new portion where a chaos warrior takes on an empire warrior priest (and the chaos warrior kicks the crap out o' him) is pretty sweet. My favorite parts are with the dwarf and the witch elf, but that is pretty sweet too. I am big time looking forward to this game.

Warhammer Online Trailer

Wisconsin vrs. Illinois

2006-08-20T23:36:00.000-05:00

Went south of the border here armed with my Warhammer companions to gain a bit of revenge for the destruction that was given us the year before and just crushed them in a manner that like we were beaten the year before. For my part, the dwarfs of Dougan's Delve comped at just over 5000 points using a slightly modified WPS composition system (can be found at www.iwfb.org) and won two games and drew a third game in what was became a complete route of our foes.

We appreciate the folks at the Chicago Battle Bunker for hosting it, and if you haven't been there I recommend going. As well, we of the WWHFB thank the IWFB folks for hosting and having us. It was time to reclaim our honor.

Firefly

2006-08-20T23:30:00.000-05:00

Support this series and the movie it spawned for a pick up by SciFi channel or have Fox bring it back. It is the bomb. I'm a big fan as most folk that know me know. So, let's be bad guys and give those corporate folks some trouble.

They have an RPG game based on the series and feature film and I plan on picking it up in the near future to own. I will have a review after I have had a chance to read through it.

Dwarf's win vrs. Vampires

2006-07-09T09:34:00.000-05:00

Wow, finally the dwarfs have trounced a VC opponent pretty soundly. Of course, my list for Warhammer has definately utilized alot of anti fear tactics so that at least we are fighting for break tests and not autobreaking. Seems to me that the ol' boys certainly fought well. I lost only 150 points, though alot of that has to go to my foe who didn't identify where the points were that were easy to take or easier then ramming and trying to take my anti fear infantry blocks down.

I definately have to say that hammerers are 100% better now then they used to be, and being able to score a charge into the rear of a skeleton block is just beautiful.

To game or not to game

2006-06-24T07:54:00.000-05:00

Ah, well isn't this amazing. I am sitting here at work on a Saturday morning with not more to do then look at a computer screen and ponder why I am not gaming. Well, largely because I don't want to get caught. However, today I think I am going to talk about game emulators for the PC.

In particular NES emulators and the games for it. Most of you know that I recently started setting up a Home Theater PC (HTPC) and of course, I had to include the game emulators so that I can really have an all in one kind of box. It is pretty sweet to be able to play Mario, Zelda, and more again for the NES since I haven't had a system in years. The best thing is that with most of the emulators on the market, you can load the emulator to a flash drive and run it from that location without any lasting footprint on the PC that you are using. This is great for those work computers that no one monitors much or school computers where you can't install software. I can have my games and player in my pocket and pull up and start playing where I have access. At a friends house, well I can play there.

Now, there is a catch to game emulators that I should make clear. If you don't currently own the game that you have the ROM (the file that lets you play the game) then it is technically illegal to have the ROM. With that said, just google NES ROM's or game emulator's sometime and you will have a plethora of results. Nice heh?

The worst thing about emulators though is that everything is by keyboard. I just can't play Mario, or most games, with the keyboard. For this, I went and picked up a cheap USB game controller that looks similar to the PS2 controller and then I had to meticulously set up the buttons on the controller to work for my game emulator. Now though, it is set up pretty sweet and it is great to be able to play alot of the games from my childhood again.

Of course, when the Wii releases from Nintendo I may use thier service to play all of these old games. This is granted they don't charge you arms and legs to obtain all of the old games I used to love and play so much. I am sure that whatever emulator they will have built into the Wii will probably function better then whatever is built for a PC. Still, it is pretty cool to have them available again.

Warhammer live

2006-06-21T10:07:00.000-05:00

Just based on this beautiful Witch Elf, you have to think that the new Warhammer Online game is getting the attention that it deserves. I have to say from the ingame shots that I have seen of the game, this is game is going to look amazingly like WoW. Coincidence? Considering most of the Warcraft artwork was based on and is from original Games-Workshop offerings this doesn't surprise me at all. Personally, I am looking forward to playing a few warhammer online characters and giving this game a real run for its money. The real question is if they are going to release the game supporting the ability to play characters from all of the armies they have lines for. I guess that is a wait and see. I suggest at least downloading thier trailer.

Big Day tomorrow

2006-06-19T19:22:00.000-05:00

Well, tomorrow is a big day for me. I have my interview for an IT position at one of the biggest and best datacenter's in Madison. I am really excited and hope it goes well. Still, I have been pushing it pretty hard the last few days with everything going on lately and am starting to feel a touch burnt out. That means it will be extra important that I get a good night's sleep tonight.

With that said, I ordered a DVD burner from newegg.com today for my HTPC and I am looking forward to getting it sometime this week. It was a great deal on their weekend deals and will be a great addition. The DVD player that is in my cheap Phillips surround sound system seems to lag sometimes when replaying movies and causes a scene to get digitized. This should really help that. Especially since I am going to replace the receiver in the future with something better (eventually replacing the whole entertainment system).

For an undermountain room, how about this for an idea? A roving duerger trading caravan. Exploit the PCs some with a great wheeling and dealing role play encounter. This sounds like a great idea since the shadowy merchant will quickly be found to be a basic vender by the PCs. Through in a bit of a unique accent as you speak as the dwarfs, maybe a whisper.

On a GenCon kick

2006-06-17T08:51:00.000-05:00

Wow, another day, another post. Well, I wanted to show someone what my fiancee looks like the other day, but didn't have a single picture. That just wasn't cool. So now, I went through my photos and about the only really good picture of her was this one by the giant dice at GenCon. Well, if you have to have gaming pictures, then at least they are from the biggest gaming con in the country.

Now, if I could just get there this year...Oh well. Today I get my hair cut, and not looking real forward to that. It is about time though. There have been enough years where I have pretended to be the rebel that I am not. We will see how that goes though. Maybe my dice will be luckier then the ones and twos they seem to always role when I have less hair. If only life (and dice) were so simple.

By the way, I had been working on some Undermountain encounters to add to the campaign I am running. This first one involves using a very similar merchant character to the one in Resident Evil 4 who can offer the PC many valuables for a low rate, and hangs out in the shadows only stepping out when the PCs are overloaded with loot or in dire need of healing potions and such. This way they can avoid the need to return to the surface for longer periods (which seems to disrupt game play in my experience). Just one of many new ideas that I have had....I will post more in the future.

Getting Ready for Spiderman 3

2006-06-16T22:20:00.000-05:00

Well, I am psyched for the next Spiderman movie, and as such, thought I would post this picture from Gen Con a couple of years ago.

Another day

2006-06-16T19:50:00.000-05:00

Well, we are at work again and not doing a whole lot. There is nothing like doing tech support for dial up customers on a Friday night during the summer.

Anyways, I have been playing the Spockmarket a bunch lately and did ok at it, though I made a bad decision and went from about 500 in the country to 1500 in the country in one episode. Curse you NCC stock!!! Spockmarket is hosted on G4TV and has a virtual spock market, which is like a stock market for Trekkies. Good stuff.

I see that that Blizzard kicked a bunch of folks out of WoW for cheating. Good for Blizzard. Course, I think it is kind o' bullcrap that people can sit and make tons of cash on what is just a game that should Blizzard decide to take down completely would mean entirely lost funds.

I was finally able to download the Vista Beta 2 from Microsoft yesterday and I have it burnt to DVD now so I might install it tonight on my media center PC. Course, I need to rip a DVD rom out of my good desktop...that might require some motivation...grrr...

Well bar food is coming in the next 15 minutes or so. Then I can actually have something to do, eat!

twice in a day

2006-06-15T18:50:00.000-05:00

Wow, well, twice in one day. Isn't that something. Well, I do have to say I don't have much in the way of the great advancement of gaming. Course, this isn't really that kind o' blog. I would like to say that sitting here at work is quiet and not really exciting. Class sucked today, and was a complete waste of my time. Worse, was the waste of gasoline as I made the 45 minute drive to class and back.

I hope you are all enjoying the new graphics. I want to thank google for that. Not that any of this is anything really new to the world of bloggers, but it took some time to motivate and get it done the way I want it. I wanted to say for any Warhammer enthusiasts that I did add some content to Dougan's Delve for the new dwarf book and I may go ahead and add some more stuff in the near future. I really want to overhaul the whole look and feel of that site, but I have to learn photoshop and some other images and stuff to obtain so that is a long way off.

My big kick in gaming for the PC has been Battlefield 2 demo and Warhammer 40k, Dawn of War. Both are great games, and I should buy the full version of BF2 so I can play more. Biggest prob with BF2 is that it is best played at LAN parties and the next party I will be at will be in October.

I want to host a LAN party at my place soon, maybe a half dozen folks but I have to get the foundation equipment still (mostly just network cabling now). I will certainly let you know and have a couple of screen shots available for the aftermath.

Sitting in Class

2006-06-15T09:50:00.000-05:00

This sucks, the instructor for project management didn't show and now I am stuck here working with my group on this final project and getting nothing done. Yay!!!

Well, maybe I will just have another pic for ye....

This is my main from WoW. I wish I could still afford to play this game. Anyways, meh. Think I am going to go home now.

Long time, no typey

2006-06-14T17:45:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a while since I have posted here but I would like to say that things are going well enough. I have a special treat. I have been busy as crap lately and haven't posted or done much as I have been reorganizing my home network and organizing the files here. Well, while I was doing that, I found some of the old photos from GenCon a couple of years back and found a photo of this beautiful lass and thought I had to share it. I hope all of you folks appreciate it.

As far as the gaming front. My DnD party is supposed to meet I think this weekend at my place, but I think that has been canceled. Oh well. They just started tromping in Undermountain and we will just have to see how long they last.

I started playing my dwarfs again in Warhammer again and I think they did well with the rules. They seem to be a better list. I have yet to see if they trully can hold up in a tourney though. I have one coming up in July though. I caught a 4000 point game yesterday against a pretty average Empire player and managed a minor victory. He probably should have drawn, but he was so frustrated at the way the game had gone and thought he was getting masacred that he just kind of gave up at the end and made stupid decisions. I think he learned a big lesson.

LAN Party

2005-12-24T15:26:00.000-06:00

Well, last Wednesday was the Herzing LAN party hosted by HCON and it wasn't to bad of a time. Of course, my decent gaming tower did a nose dive out of my computer chair before I even left the house so it stayed home. Started up ok, but the CPU fan is making a bit of a funny noise so there is a little concern, but it is running great. So I took my little eMachines laptop and helped set up until 4 when the party officially started. Then I was roped into watching the front door for the first 4 hours which kind of sucked, but considering that I started with 40 dollars in my hand for making change and I ended up with over 200 dollars in my hands that was pretty damn good. Well it was 9 pm, the party was just getting rolling and we had at least 50 folks there at one point so I logged on to a couple of games of BZ Flag which is an open source FPS where you are a tank. The graphics a little weak and the scenery is very basic 3d shapes, but the challenge to that game and the way the physics of the game respond is really pretty good. You do get the feel that you are in a lumbering, large tank that is hard to turn, and though they can jump, you have little to no real control once you are in the air. Alot of fun. Of course we had all of the usual stuff too like file swapping and such, which I made out ok on.

My only gripe is that they never did give us access to outside game ports such as those for World of Warcraft which I would have really liked. Oh well, probably will be my last one for a while as well as they usually host these on Fridays and I have to work on those days.

Everyone, have a happy holiday season and may Santa bring you alot of great games to play!!!

Slowing down some

2005-12-11T14:04:00.000-06:00

With the holidays, things have slowed down for me. I haven't had a real chance to get onto WoW lately and now my account is on hold until finances go in a more positive direction so I can play again. The DnD group is most likely going to miss next Sunday's session so we won't play again till the 31st at the soonest. Of course, that could make for a long session! I have been trying to find an excellant N64 emulator and haven't had good luck finding anything. I have tried Project 64 and now Nemu (which has issues with my controller for some reason). Anyone with a good recommendation, please mail me at theoldmage@yahoo.com

Warhammer wise though, things are going stronger in the recent weeks, even though I missed last Wednesday at Pegasus. The Wednesday between Christmas and New Years there will be a special terrain day at the store to help repair and develop terrain for the new game area. Then I have the Steven's Point tournament up coming which I really need to get some more paint on my beastmen so I can play. Of course, the spring tournament is started in the planning and I also have a big Bring and Battle in Madison that Nori, our Madison representative, is putting together. Makes for a pretty busy league organizer.

School for the semester is starting to wind down, and none too soon as I am starting to feel burned out and exhausted from the constant schedule. I am looking forward to the winter break for 2.5 weeks. W00T is all I have to say about that! As soon as I have my winter tournament list ready for the Warhammer tournament I will post it.

Till later,
Ben

w00t, at it again

2005-11-26T19:41:00.000-06:00

Well, I am posting. Not a whole lot knew as I am stuck at work for most of this week end. Nothing is good going into the Christmas season for me as our second car just took a giant crap and there is nearly no chance it will be fixed soon. Between that, and no money to pay any bills with we are nearly up a creek without a paddle. Still, if I can manage it I am going to try to pick up a NintendoDS for my fiancee for the holiday. I know someone that is selling theirs used with Nintendogs and a couple of other games so it isn't a bad deal. If I can get MarioKart for it, we will be hooked up and kickin' tail (or more actually being kicked) on line with that in the near future.

Next week is the big 2nd session for DnD and I have been lazy thus far and haven't written their adventure for it. I am hoping to get that whipped out on Tuesday, though I might try to work on it tomorrow night. I at least have my mind made up as to what we will want to do for the next mission and they should have alot of fun. This will definately be a more difficult session then their first, but I won't get too tough as they are still all rather new to the game, at least the edition, and still need alot of hand holding.

WoW has seen Magnorock, my main (48 Tauran Warrior), spend most of his time just trying to generate cash. Of course, he has been questing some in the Feralas and I finished a couple of quests recently, but nothing big and no levels. God, I am so close to 50 I can taste it. Of course, then I have another 10 levels beyond that before I hit the coveted 60 where I can claim to be Mag the all mighty! I did start working on an alt on Lightbringer again, Foedror a lvl 15 Tauran Shaman, and nearly leveled with him today. I like the character ok enough, but I don't know anyone on the server yet and haven't run into my buds who also play there to do any questing as a group. Looking forward to that day as this character will have more potential down the road then my current main.

Anyways, take care and good gaming.

Posting Again

2005-11-24T10:49:00.000-06:00

My goodness, a second post this month. It is amazing what I can get done when I am sitting at work on Turkey day!!!

My overall lack of gaming lately has been terrible, but I did get in a good game of Warhammer last night where my beastmen faced off against a Nurgle daemonic legion army. The game was really finished before our models hit the table, but I still came close to being able to find a way to victory. It was a moment of brilliance, and accident, in the way I was able to bottle neck his center of plague bearers and the 2 nurgle chariots. However, I didn't just have enough room to hit his plague riders with the second chariot that would have crushed the unit and set me up to sweep his left flank. In the end, I managed to kill the plague riders after they had rampaged most of my right flank with a lucky irresistable force that sent my minituars charging into them and two units of nurglings. Meanwhile, most of my army was either fleeing or dead and papa nurgle daemon himself was still just above half wounds.

I don't think I could have played that game any better then I did. If both my bray shamans hadn't failed thier first unruly tests I may have been able to hold back some and use a greater scatter tactic that I had intended to force a draw instead of a loss. It would have been my greatest shot based on what I bring to the table for an army. However, their failing caused my army to need to surge forward some, which then made it more of a game of bottlenecking his units and trying to break the right flank. I certainly couldn't have held off on that critical charge against the plague riders and of course the chariot did whiff on the impact hits which could have saved me there. Even killing one of those riders on the charge may have left me in a position to win the combat instead of auto breaking because of their fear.

I leveled to 48 with Magnorock a couple of days ago on WoW. I really have lost some of my inspiration for that game since I started to reach the higher levels. I tried my run at building a guild, but it seems that is falling flat. With any luck, getting a ventrillo server up and working will help but I have lost a large portion of the members and we certainly won't be getting back. I am hoping to get some game play on a couple of other servers this week end where I know some other people and hopefully that will be better and more fun. As for now though, things seem to be stumbling along there. The game is a great game, you just need to have other folks willing to help you and play with. Something I haven't had with Mag for the last few levels.

Have a great Turkey day.

Forever gaming

2005-11-17T21:46:00.000-06:00

Wow, my gaming life has not allowed me the time I should to post on this blog and for that I am sorry. Things have been pretty interesting for me in the last couple weeks though and it looks like I am going to be getting a new DnD group together this weekend. Of course, I have the be the dungeon master for the group, but I am used to it. Most of the folks have played before, but it has been a long time for all of them so I am curious to see how things go.

I don't want to clue in any on what is going to happen in the game, but I am setting it in Waterdeep of the Forgotten Realms and will be adventuring that area of the game world. We may expand a little, depending on how I feel about the group but I have a great initial story line started for them and only time will tell how exactly this will go.

For WoW, things haven't been as good lately. The guild I started has been rather dwindling as the numbers continue to drop as folks flock to the larger guilds. This sucks for those few who have been loyal to the guild. I am hoping to influence them some with the introduction of a Ventrillo voice server and really am hoping to have that up and running by Saturday of this week. I need to redo the website for the guild as the first one was rediculously poor. I just haven't have the real motivation to take on a project like that.

I have had a couple of surprising Warhammer games, most recently I played a gent at 2150 points with my chaos beastmen of Nurgle versus his mortal chaos worshippers of Khorne. This was definately one of the toughest games I have one, as really the mortal armies of chaos seem to always have the advantage against my beasts. Still, I was able to pull off some amazingly lucky charges and tactical moves that really kept me in the game, and even just squeeked out a victory in the end when I finally broke his chosen knights with his chaos lord. It was a beautiful day to run them down.

Keep gaming folks,

Ben

Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-06T10:11:00.000-05:00

Not that I want to change the content of this blog or where it is going, but with this tragedy fresh in our minds and hearts I wanted to touch on it and give out a message of my whole hearted compassion regarding it. I held off till now just so I can fully get an idea of what happened, and try to find and hear the reasons why. If you have the ability, please donate money, time, blood, whatever you can to those people that have had their lives ruined. I personally know how hard it can be after having just a house fire and having to sift through the reckage. What would it be like to have your home, nieghbors, job, and entire city wiped out?

With the message of compassion also comes the whys, and I would ask that the country not turn a blind eye to the failures of the federal goverment. I would directly point the finger at George Bush, our president, who has failed once again to lead. If anything, his inability to coordinate and oversee that a job is done and followed through with is embarrassing and if it wasn't for this horrid tragedy the world, and most of us, would be laughing at his bumbling. Honestly, a whole city and large parts of a state are wiped out and there isn't military personal brought in to maintain order and help. Whether it is the guard, army, whatever it doesn't matter. There should have been something there and deployed within the first few hours. What if this would have been a nuclear blast or something else? Could we have reacted? From Bush's constant failure's as leader I would say no.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to me rant once again.

WoW till your blue in the face

2005-09-05T12:05:00.000-05:00

We don't even want to start discussing the disgusting amount of time that I have dedicated to this game. If you don't own World of Warcraft, seriously get out from under your rock and buy it. With the price of gas these days, it is going to be the only way us gamers are going to be able to play anything that resembles the sit down dnd groups we are used to.

Which gets me started on the price of gas. Write your senator, congressman, state representatives and anyone else that even remotely can do anything about it. If we don't either get a replacement for gasoline as the standard fuel for America or do something with the price of gas this country is going to come to a grinding hault and our computer fun will be over because there will be no money to pay for it! That is right, I think we are well on our way to another great depression. This one lead because our President, George Bush, did not have the forsight to do anything to keep gas prices in check and now they are going to continue to rise. I have to pay nearly double what I paid for gas at this time last year. Where is that extra money going? Not to power our economy that is for sure. Do yourself a favor and do something about it!

Back to more fun things after my rant. World of Warcraft has been alot of fun so far. My Tauren Warrior on the Lothar server is named Magnorock and somehow I have made it to lvl 32. I most recently picked up a really cool axe for him that has a chance to unload a fireball upon hit. It is sweet! My other characters on the other servers have kind of fallen to the wayside. I just haven't had the time to play them. I had finals most recently again at Herzing, and they really cut into my play time. With just a week off between classes and piling in 6 days of work in a row to help come up with the cash to pay for my addiction...well you know.

WoW and More!!!

2005-08-06T16:57:00.000-05:00

Well after two days of nearly non stop game play on WoW, I have managed to to be part of a party, die alot of times, get my arse handed to me in a couple of challenges, and overall have fun. Overall, the game is fun, if a little repetitive. Of course, that would most likely be the case if you play a class like Warrior as they don't have alot in the way of additional abilities. However, now that my Tauren Warrior is made it to 10th level, he is starting to become bad arse. Of course, he is having some issues as the game continues to issue quests for you that become increasingly more difficult and deadly and encourage group play.

While I am on the topic of group play, all of you who play this game need to make some more noise and interact more. Last night was pretty good, and we had a 3 Tauren party. However, today I was on for nearly 5 hours and no one replied to or acknowledged my antics. Maybe, night owls are more receptive to that kind of stuff. I don't know. Anyways, if you see a Tauren Warrior running around, jumping a bunch (sometimes anyways), named Magnorock say hi to him, or challenge, or whatever.

Well, I have to go and finish up my homework for Network Operating Systems (basically a Windows). Working this week end so it is like a 7 hour study hall as long as the phones are quiet.

Just bought WoW

2005-08-04T20:50:00.000-05:00

It has been a while again, and while this is my fault. I have been very busy with work, Warhammer, and my studies. No excuse, I know. Get over it.

So I finally jumped on the bandwagon and bought World of Warcraft, or for the more enlightened, WoW. It looks like a sweet game, but I haven't been that ambitious to really get started with the install. I really have my doubts that any game is worth 50 bucks up front and then another 15 per month to play it (plus a 40+ dollar internet bill), but I will be sure to give you my final review later.

Of course, I have been playing alot with the emulators I have on my home PC. Sonic has been fun, since I never had a Sega back in the days. I also have been playing alot of Golden Axe II which is classic fun at its best.

Better get back to work, before another idiot calls on the phone and needs tech support! Some people can just be dumb with the computer.

Back to school

2005-07-21T20:37:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a while. I started classes last Wednesday and things are ok. Speech really sucks though. Any time you have to speek publicly, I recommend you con someone else into doing it for you.

Work on Undermountain progresses, but it is still quite a work in progress. Considering I don't have a group completely put together for it yet, you can tell it isn't a giant priority.

My beastmen stomped some tzeench mortal rear the other day. Complete massacre which was very impressive. I am getting to be very happy with that army and I am looking forward to getting the army finished painted and taking them to competition.

Finished my first computer fix-it job. Not much of a job though, just helping smooth out someone's computer and installing ad-aware and firefox to help them with their browsing. I still have a laptop that I am working on for someone else. Probably need to replace the keyboard on that one and if I have to, a classmate Justin will probably help me with it.

Slow but sure

2005-07-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

My progress on RE4 has been slow, but forthcoming in the recent weeks and I am finally almost back to the point that I was before my file was corrupted and I had to restart my game. God, I wish I didn't die so much on that game. Of course that is half of the challenge of that game and it makes it alot of fun.

Finally caught a game of Warhammer last night. Two weeks off from my favorite game is too long. My beastmen took on a high elf army at 1000 points and while most of the game was a route of the high elves, it wasn't nearly so obvious at the end as his lone unit of high elf spearmen that I had knocked down from 18 to 4 plus a wizard character broke my beast herd and chariot that they were engaged with, pursued the herd, then charged this unit that had fled and caught it on his turn leaving him way out of position for my death blow that would have scored a massacre. Craziness I tell you.

The DnD group has all but flopped I think. They said that would get in touch with me, but I think it is all but over. This has started to motivate me to start putting together stuff for my Heroes Unlimited stuff again. If you haven't played under that game system, you should. The one thing you really need with it that you don't need with DnD and similar games is a game master that is capable of keeping thing balanced between the players. The system itself orientates itself more around story and accomplishing objectives which is really cool and helps get players away from the static hack and slash that I see so many players concerned with. I am also thinking about dumping some time into modernizing my ruins of Undermountain stuff to 3.5. Of course, I keep hoping that TSR will just do it for me so I can buy it but I think it might end up being a longer wait then what I want. I love running undermountain as almost every group that goes into those dark tunnels has a different experiance.

I am very close to picking up World of Warcraft now too. I need some extra cash to pick it up though, and don't know when that will happen. School starts next week too, so I won't be able to pick up to many more hours at work unless they switch me to this full time deal.

Another night...

2005-06-30T20:24:00.000-05:00

Well, finally made it through finals and I did all right. Should have another couple of A's to add to the ol' GPA at Herzing. Whatever I have to do to succeed I guess. Of course, Tuesday on my way down to class I was stuck on the interstate for nearly an hour because the road buckled just passed my exit and everything was down to one lane. Crazy heat lately making the road do wierd things. At least it has cooled down now!!!

I have been pretty lazy the last few days, didn't even go to Warhammer on Wednesday. Just wasn't motivated to do it. Of course, I have been playing alot of RE4 on the GameCube and was stuck on getting passed one room for nearly 5 hours!!!! I don't know what was wrong with me, of course I was a little short on ammo going in. Normally, ammo isn't an issue for you on that game as when most of the zombies die they give up ammo but when you are short on it, you can have some issues on the more difficult room. Once I was able to get past that room though, I was able to get some pretty good upgrades to my guns. I am on a fan of the following weapons on that game....The Handgun (or any of the upgraded versions of it), The shotgun (the first one you shouldn't have to buy, the second one is a must if you play like I do), The rifle (save your cash until the semi auto one is available, you don't really need it before then) with the scope, and the machine gun (buy the accessory for it, you become alot more accurate after that and buy all of the upgrades for it, this gun is very good for most of the bosses). Of course, I haven't beaten it yet.

Watched Shaun of the Dead again the other day and I highly recommend it. It is a great zombie/comedy flick that is done well with a bit of Brittish humor. The main characters from this movie have a cool cameo in Land of the Dead, which was pretty good as well. I was just a touch disappointed with the way that one ended though.

I also saw Batman Begins a while back and it wasn't bad, but I was disappointed with the fight scenes. Movie makers, please stop trying to do that with fight scenes. It doesn't work.

Haven't played much else lately except a bit of Tecmo Bowl with a NES emulator I have at home. Wish I still had my old NES system, but it went the way of the dump years ago.

Gaming night flop

2005-06-26T16:28:00.000-05:00

Boy, did that crap out. None of the other players showed up, but I conned the DM into a XP bonus for my effort anyways. All in all, I wasn't real happy since I could have been at home playing Resident Evil 4. Oh well, 'tis the way life goes somedays!!! Just a couple hundred more points before level 3 now! That will definately get my character alot closer to the kicking arse levels that I enjoy the most.

Wish I could find some ambition to paint on my Beastmen army, but everytime I get home I either have to work on homework or I just want to vegetate. I was finally able to defeat a Vampire Counts army a couple weeks back and it really put me on a high about the army. I think after a year and a half I have finally gotten the mix of units and characters correct for the list. Sometime in the near future, I will get some pictures up here for the little beasties. I can say it has been a very fun army for me to play.

Tommorrow is the start of finals for my classes at Herzing. I am a bit worried about the TCP/IP final, but I am sure that it will work out fine. Spending most of my night stuck here at work, I am going to try and crack out some serious studying. Tons of fun for me!

Stuck at Work

2005-06-25T21:33:00.000-05:00

For whatever reason, I am starting this craziness here while I sit at work. If you don't know me, my name is Ben and I do alot of crazy gaming goodness. Mostly tabletop RPGs, Miniature games, and some computer/console gaming. Right now, obviously I am not gaming. However, I am getting ready to head out of here and cruise over to my bud's place and play DnD 'till 5 or 6 in the morn'. We are playing a bit of a backwater old 2nd edition campaign with a party full of evil craziness. My character, probably the closest to what would be considered good, is a gold elven theif who leveled up to level 2 last session. Hopefully tonight we can wrap up the quest we are on and move on to something far more intersting....

As of late, I have been playing alot of Resident Evil 4. God, there are tooo many ways to die on that game. I love it though, and if you haven't played it do so now. I mean now!!!!

Anyhow, gotta go.